Hate crime and counter terrorism
Hate crime — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
This section outlines the interplay between hate crime and terrorism, highlighting that while not all hate crimes are connected to extremist actions, they can serve as precursors to more severe offenses. Terrorist acts are often driven by hate, which may stem from personal, ideological, or external influences. Officers are alerted to specific risk indicators that suggest the potential escalation of a hate crime to terrorist activity, including extremist ideologies, linked crime series, repeated targeting of victim groups, and digital extremism engagements by perpetrators. Effective intelligence sharing with counter-terrorism units is stressed to mitigate risks and enhance responses to hate-related incidents. Resources are available through local Prevent teams.
Key principles
- 1Hate crimes may precede terrorist acts.
- 2Identify potential for escalation from hate crimes to extremism.
- 3Key indicators include extremist ideologies and targeted victim groups.
- 4Intelligence on hate crimes must inform counter-terrorism efforts.
- 5Build awareness of risks among law enforcement personnel.
Defined terms
- Prevent teams
- Local resources and units focused on preventing radicalization and terrorist activities.
Full guidance
Responding to public protection and major investigation issues, for example, child abuse, knife crime and sexual offences
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
Not all hate crime is linked to extremism and terrorism, but it is likely that a terrorist act will be motivated by hate. The hate may be personal, ideological or the result of manipulation by others and it is important to recognise the links, particularly in respect of intelligence handling.
Many perpetrators of terrorist activity commit less serious hate crimes prior to progressing to more serious offending. Not every hate crime offender will escalate to extremist crime, and the challenge is to identify those with the potential to do so, thereby enabling counter-terrorist colleagues to reduce the risk posed.
The following features may suggest the need for a more robust and timely policing response. This list is not definitive or exhaustive:
crimes fuelled by extremist ideologies, for example, racial supremacy or religious extremism * crime series which are linked and escalating in seriousness * crimes that seek to justify or glorify genocide or other war atrocities * repeated crimes that target the same victim group (or demographic) * perpetrators who demonstrate support for regimes responsible for genocide or extremist behaviour * perpetrators who host, post, share or follow extremist web content (this may be, or indicate precursor activity to more serious offending) * perpetrators who distance themselves from family and/or friends
It is important that any suspicions or relevant intelligence are fed into counter-terrorism intelligence systems.
To ensure that forces recognise and respond to risk indicators, staff should be made aware of potential risk factors and links. In addition, counter-terrorism colleagues should have oversight of reported hate crimes and associated intelligence.
Additional resources for officers and staff are available from local Prevent teams and/or CT Policing Online(opens an external website in the same tab) (accessible from a PNN address only).
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Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.