Definition of the racial harassment strategy

3.1. The Commission for Racial Equality’s definition has been adopted for the purposes of this document, and is as follows:

A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.

3.2. The range of such acts may be very wide and would include: murder, unprovoked assaults including common assault, actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm, damage to property including arson, breaking windows and doors, graffiti, jostling, verbal abuse, dumping rubbish, abusive letters, etc.

Such acts are terrifying, offensive, degrading and humiliating for the victim.

3.3. Section 3 of the Race Relations Act 1976, defines racial group as "a group of persons defined by reference to colour, race, nationality, or ethnic or national origin." Racial harassment is usually directed at those whose skin colour is different and also at those whose culture, tradition and languages may be different, e.g. African-Caribbean, people from the Indian sub-continent, Jewish people, Irish people or Travellers.

3.4. A complaint of an unwelcome or hostile act should be treated as a complaint of racial harassment if it so appears to the person who receives or investigates the complaint, or if there is an allegation by any person that the act or series of acts was carried out wholly or partly on racial grounds.