Definitions

ACPO – abbreviation for Association of Chief Police Officers.

Asylum seeker – this is anyone who is waiting for their application of refugee status to be assessed by the government. There is no such thing as an “illegal” asylum seeker in that the UK signed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951). This gave anyone the legal right to come to the UK, apply for asylum and remain here, until the government makes a final decision on their asylum application. Once an asylum seeker has been granted leave to remain in the country, they become a refugee.

Biphobia – this word refers to an irrational fear or hatred of bisexual people. It can also be used to refer to discrimination against bisexuals.

Bisexual – this is a sexual orientation which refers to the emotional, sexual and romantic attraction to individuals of either gender.

BME – an abbreviation for black and minority ethnic.

Coming out – a shortened version of ‘coming out of the closet’. It is a term in common usage in the LGBT community and describes the voluntary public announcement of someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Someone who is ‘out’ does not generally conceal these characteristics. Someone who is ‘closeted’ may decide to remain so indefinitely. They may also decide to begin the process at a later date. The reasons for this are often complex and always personal.

Disability – people who are perceived as disabled are disadvantaged by society in many ways and any attempt at an absolute definition can add to the disadvantage.

The social model of disability views the barriers within society that prevent disabled people from participating in any situation as what disables them. The medical model sees the disability as the problem.

So physical disability would be thought of as a physical impairment in terms of the medical model. However, in the social model it would be about the interaction between a person and their environment. The social model would also highlight the role of a society in labelling, causing or maintaining disability within that society. This includes the attitudes of other people and forms of accessibility which favoured the majority.

A learning disability can be described as anything which affects the way someone learns, communicates or carries out everyday tasks15. This definition relates to the social model. Service providers such as MENCAP generally use the term learning disabilities, but other groups prefer learning difficulties.

Attempts to define the word disability in legislation seem to cause controversy, as was the case for the original Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Ethnic group – this is a human population whose members identify with each other, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry. Ethnic groups are also usually united by certain common cultural, behavioural, linguistic, ritualistic or religious traits.

Gay – in the context of hate crime, this word is mainly used to refer to self-identified homosexual men, but is also used by people of either sex. A gay man is emotionally, sexually and romantically attracted to other men. The use of the term became mainstream in the 1960s, when gay became the term preferred by most homosexual men to describe themselves. Gay was the preferred term since other words, such as queer, were felt to be derogatory at the time. Similarly, homosexual was seen as being rather clinical.

Gender identity – in sociology, gender identity describes the gender with which a person identifies (i.e, whether one perceives oneself to be a man, a woman, or describes oneself in some less conventional way). It can also be used to refer to the gender that other people attribute to the individual on the basis of what they know from indications such as clothing, hair style and so on. Gender identity may be affected by a variety of social structures, including the person's ethnic group, employment status, religion and family.

Harassment – this term is generally used to refer to the violation of a person’s dignity or the creation of an interrogating, hostile, offensive or humiliating situation. Sometimes the word bullying is used instead, often in relation to young people (for example in homophobic bullying).

Hate crime- any incident, which may or may not constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate. The definition encompasses non-criminal acts such as verbal abuse and is widely in use in the UK. Some organisations (eg the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers) use this term to refer only to incidents involving a criminal offence. They use the term hate incident to refer to the other kind.

Hate incident – some organisations (eg the Home Office and ACPO) use this term to refer to incidents not involving a criminal offence. In this document, the more general term hate crime is used (see above).

Homophobia – this word refers to an irrational fear or hatred of homosexual people or homosexuality. It can also be used to refer to discrimination against homosexuals.

Honour crime – so-called honour crimes are a complex reaction within a family to someone who is perceived to have brought some sort of shame upon relatives. The term is contradictory in that it suggests that a crime might be an honourable act. This is why it is important to call them ‘so-called honour crimes’.

Institutional racism – this is the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour in organisations. These can amount to discrimination through prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness or racist stereotyping. Again, institutional racism can be intentional or unintentional.

Lesbian – this word is a gender-specific term that is only used for self-identified homosexual women. A lesbian is emotionally, sexually and romantically attracted to other women.

LGB – used in this document as an abbreviation for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

LGBT – a common abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered. Strictly speaking, the first 3 terms refer to sexual orientation. The last term (transgendered) refers to someone’s preferred gender identity.

Outing– disclosing someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent or against their wish (hence the term being outed).

Outreach – this is an effort by an organisation or group to connect its ideas or practices to the efforts of other organisations, groups, specific audiencies or the general public. It is increasingly common for organisations like Victim Support to think of their outreach strategy as a two-way process.

Racial group - The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 defined this term very broadly as being a group of people defined by reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.

Racially aggravated – The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 defined this term as being either:

At the time of committing the offence, immediately before or after doing so, the offender demonstrates towards the victim hostility based on the victim’s membership (or presumed membership) of a racial group or
The offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility towards members of a racial group based on their membership of that group.

Racism – can be defined as actions, signals or words which disadvantage people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. Racism can be intentional but can also be unintentional (eg as a result of thoughtlessness). Both are damaging.

Racist crime – a racist crime is any crime perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person. Nowadays, the inclusive term hate crime is often used instead.

Racist incident – a racist incident is any incident perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person. Nowadays, the inclusive term hate incident is often used instead.

Recorded crimes – the police decide whether or not to record a reported crime. They also need to work out how many crimes to record and the types of offence. This is done using the Counting Rules for Recorded Crime. All recorded crimes have to be notified to the Home Office by the police. Please check the Home Office website for more discussion on this definition.

Recorded crime statistics – this set of figures only covers offences notified to the Home Office by the police. In fact, this is a smaller figure than the actual number of criminal offences because most minor summary offences are left out of the recorded crime figures.

Refugee – In a legal sense, a refugee is defined as a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” This definition appears in Article 1 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951).

Religiously aggravated - The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 defined this term as being either:

At the time of committing the offence, immediately before or after doing so, the offender demonstrates towards the victim hostility based on the victim’s membership (or presumed membership) of a religious group or
The offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility towards members of a religious group based on their membership of that group.

Religious group - The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 used this term as meaning a group of people defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious beliefs.

Reported crimes – this refers to a member of the public reporting a crime to the police or if the police observe or discover a crime. The police register a crime-related incident and then decide whether or not to record it as an actual crime. This is done using the National Crime Recording Standard. Please check the Home Office website for more discussion on this definition.

Secondary victimisation – victims of crime can experience severe and long-lasting trauma. This can be made worse by insensitive treatment and a lack of understanding of their needs by the agencies with which they come into contact. This is generally known as secondary victimisation.

Sexual identity - this describes how a person identifies related to their sexual orientation. Hence a man who exclusively prefers women will usually have a straight or heterosexual sexual identity, and a woman who exclusively prefers women usually a lesbian or homosexual sexual identity.

Sexuality - the sexuality of human beings comprises a broad range of behaviour and processes. It includes the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political and spiritual aspects of sex and human sexual behaviour. Heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality are all specific examples of human sexuality.

Sexual orientation – this describes the personally chosen direction of someone’s sexuality, often in relation to their own sex or gender. Common terms for describing sexual orientation include bisexual (bi), heterosexual (straight) and homosexual (gay or lesbian). Some people and organisations prefer not to use this term as the word orienatation can imply that people could be re-oriented. The broader term sexuality would be used instead.

Transgendered or transgender – this is someone whose own gender identity does not match the gender assigned to them by others, most commonly at birth. It is the ‘T’ in LGBT. It is often shortened to transgender. Being transgendered does not imply anything about someone’s sexual orientation. Transgender identity includes many overlapping sub-categories. These include transsexual, cross-dresser, transvestite, consciously androgynous people, people who live cross-gender and so on. Bear in mind that dressing in clothes usually associated with the opposite gender may have more to do with entertainment than with transgender issues.

Transphobia – this word refers to an irrational fear or hatred of transgendered or transsexual people or to transsexuality. It often takes the form of refusing to accept a person’s expression of their internal gender identity. There is a medically recognised condition of gender identity disorder. It can also be used to refer to discrimination against transgendered people.

Transsexual – this is someone who wants to have, or has already achieved, a different physical sex from their original physical sex. Not all transsexuals think of themselves as transgendered which has led to the shorter word trans being used (as in the phrase trans-people). A trans-man has made the tranisition from woman to man. A trans-woman has made the tansition from man to woman.

Travellers – various ethnic groups are included in the travelling community. This includes the Roma people (from Southern and eastern Europe as well as the Middle East). The Romnichal live mainly in Britain and North America and are sometimes known as Gypsies (by many organisations including the Commission for Racial Equality on their website). But care needs to be taken with this term as it is sometimes used in a derogatory way. Irish Travellers (or more correctly the Pavee) are a nomadic people living in Ireland, Great Britain and the United States.