LEAFLET 16 Anti-social behaviour, harassment and hate crime A guide for residents ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, HARASSMENT AND HATE CRIME LEAFLET 16 This leaflet contains information and Anti-social behaviour guidance on anti-social behaviour, harassment and hate crime and what Antisocial behaviour is defined as: to do if you experience this or know “Behaviour by others that unreasonably interferes with people’s rights to the someone who does. use and enjoyment of their home and community.” This can mean anything from persistent noise nuisance to serious violence or other criminal behaviour that affects your quality of life. Racial harassment Racial harassment is defined as: “Any incident or behaviour aimed at individuals or their property because of their skin colour, nationality, race or culture.” This can mean anything from behaviour intended to intimidate, dominate or harm, to abusive graffiti/racist graffiti, offensive literature, verbal abuse/racist language and physical assault/attack. Hate crime Hate crimes can be against a person’s religious beliefs, gender, sexuality, disability or race. This can mean threatening or abusive behaviour, verbal abuse, abusive graffiti, offensive literature, physical assault/ attack and damage to property. PAGE 2 LEAFLET 16 ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, HARASSMENT AND HATE CRIME Other forms of harassment pictures. The behaviour is unwanted by the recipient and would be regarded as Bullying sexual harassment by any reasonable Bullying is coercion or intimidation person. which serves to undermine/downgrade the confidence and integrity of the We condemn all forms of anti-social bully’s target. behaviour, racial harassment, hate crime and other forms of harassment and are Examples of bullying are: committed to taking action against it. • personal insults and name calling; Our commitment to you • persistent unwanted criticism; • public humiliation. We will not tolerate anti-social behaviour, racial harassment, hate Any difficulty in defining what crime or other forms of harassment in constitutes harassment or bullying our communities. We hope that you should not deter residents from will work with us to ensure that our complaining of behaviour that causes communities remain peaceful places them distress. to live in and encourage you to report such incidents whenever or wherever they occur. Sexual harassment This form of harassment involves Your commitment to us unwanted sexual attention that emphasises sexual status, including We expect you to be a good neighbour and respect your neighbours’ privacy sexual harassment between members and comfort. Under the terms of your of the same sex. It can be physical, tenancy and leasehold agreements it ranging from suggestive looks to is your responsibility to ensure that indecent assault or rape, or verbal, members of your household and ranging from belittling or suggestive your visitors do not cause a “nuisance remarks and compromising invitations, or annoyance to other persons in the to aggressively foul language or neighbourhood”. unwanted demands for sex, or displays of sexually suggestive or degrading PAGE 3 ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, HARASSMENT AND HATE CRIME LEAFLET 16 How to report unacceptable • Beverley Police – non-emergency behaviour number 0845 6060222. • Scarborough Police – non- • Call the Police on 0845 6060247 emergency number 0845 and leave a message for the 6060247. Neighbourhood Team Officer to • Cleveland Police – non-emergency contact you. You will be contacted number 01642 326326. by phone, and no Police Officer will call at your home unless you have What happens when asked them to do so. you report unacceptable • Call Crimestoppers free on 0800 555111 – you can do this behaviour? anonymously if you wish. We will take appropriate action E-mail to prevent such behaviour in our [email protected] communities but we need you to report – your message will be passed to it first. the relevant officer. When you do, we will agree a proposed If you live in Hartlepool, you can course of support with you which, contact the Community Safety Office where appropriate: on 01429 405577 or visit the website, ✓ ensures your confidentiality; http://www.saferhartlepool.co.uk. ✓ provides guidance and support to For Leeds, email community.safety@ you about your options; leeds.gov.uk. ✓ encourages you to report the incident to the police; For Beverley and Selby, you can call ✓ ensures that partners like the police 01482 391012 or email are aware of the situation; [email protected]. ✓ works with other agencies to tackle For Scarborough, call 01723 232326. the problem; ✓ finds other witnesses so you are not For other areas “alone”; • Call Crimestoppers free on ✓ makes sure you are all right and 0800 555111 – you can do this updates you on our progress; anonymously and do not need to ✓ considers using “without notice” supply your name and address. injunctions against identifiable PAGE 4 LEAFLET 16 ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, HARASSMENT AND HATE CRIME perpetrators where threats of Collecting evidence violence have been made; ✓ arranges alternative As well as approaching your neighbour accommodation, either temporarily you should start to collect evidence. or permanently, where there is a This will be useful if you want to take fear for your safety; further action yourself or if we are able ✓ improves your security by providing to take action later. You will need to extra measures such as additional record the type of problem, if anyone window locks, security chains, extra else witnessed it, the time and date it locks, security lights as appropriate, occurred, how long it lasted and how for your property; the incident has affected you. Ask your ✓ provides personal security items Neighbourhood Services Officer to give such as personal alarms and a you a diary sheet (see example at end mobile phone; of leaflet). If you think other neighbours ✓ offers an “out of hours” emergency are being affected by the problem, you contact list; could approach them and see if they ✓ remove any racist or offensive graffiti are willing to fill in diary sheets. promptly (within 24 hours); ✓ pays special attention to monitoring Contacting other agencies the area you live in. We will always work in partnership with you to try to resolve a neighbour What you can do if you are problem. However, if trying to sort experiencing anti-social out the problem informally with your neighbours has not worked, you could behaviour try taking action yourself by involving Talking to your neighbour other agencies. Most problems can be settled by talking to your neighbour and explaining What we will do politely that their behaviour is causing We recognise that some problems you a problem. When you approach between neighbours can be distressing. your neighbour it is important to We do expect you to approach your stay calm and not get involved in an neighbour first before coming to us. If argument. you have tried this or if the problem is serious and you do not want to contact PAGE 5 ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, HARASSMENT AND HATE CRIME LEAFLET 16 your neighbour directly, then you Our legal powers should contact us. We will always work in partnership with you to try to resolve We have three legal options. We can: a neighbour problem. • apply for an injunction against your We will discuss possible options with neighbour to stop them causing a you including: nuisance; • apply for a possession order • mediation; (eviction) or demoted tenancy order • we could write to or interview your against your neighbour; neighbour; • work with the local authority and • collecting further evidence; the police to take action under the • completing diary sheets or us Crime and Disorder Act 1998. This interviewing other neighbours could include getting an Anti-Social affected by the problem; Behaviour Order. • you taking legal action. If we apply to the court for an We will not take any action without injunction or a possession order or if your agreement and will keep full action is taken under the Crime and written records about the case. Rarely Disorder Act, then we have to prove there may be a threat of violence, two things: abuse or other retribution against someone who has complained. If you • that nuisance is taking place; and or we feel that this is a real possibility, • that it is serious enough for an we will do all we can to ensure your injunction, a possession order or an anonymity is maintained and your Anti-social Behaviour Order to be security protected. granted. If we do not think we can help by taking We need a lot of supporting evidence any action, we will explain this to you. and witnesses prepared to appear in If you are not happy with this decision, court. This may mean that you and/or you can complain, using our complaints other neighbours will need to appear reporting form. as witnesses. However, it is possible to rely on evidence from ‘professional witnesses‘, members of our staff or staff from other agencies. PAGE 6 LEAFLET 16 ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, HARASSMENT AND HATE CRIME What you can do if you Within 5 working days we will: are suffering from racial • do what we can to find out who has harassment been harassing you; • if it is an employee, contractor • Write down what happened with or agent of ours, we will take the times, dates and descriptions of appropriate disciplinary action those responsible and contact your against them; Neighbourhood Services Officer or • if you agree, report the incident any other JRHT employee. Ask your to: The Police and the York Racial Neighbourhood Services Officer to Equality Network, The Gatehouse, give you diary sheets to use. 49 Cemetery Road, York, YO10 5AJ • Report it to the police or ask your (Tel: 01904 642600). Neighbourhood Services Officer to report it for you. Within 10 working days we will: • Contact one of the organisations listed at the end of this leaflet for • begin the legal process to repossess advice and support.