Prejudice and unlawful behaviour: Exploring levers for change

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (‘the Commission’) is interested in exploring the relationship between prejudiced attitudes and behaviours in order to identify what can be done to prevent and respond effectively to unlawful behaviour in England, Scotland and Wales (GB). To inform this work this report was commissioned to summarise and integrate evidence from research in GB between 2005 and 2015. The aim was to address three fundamental questions:

1.What is the nature of the relationship between prejudiced attitudes andunlawful discrimination, identity-based harassment and violence?

2.What is the extent and prevalence of unlawful behaviour based on prejudicedattitudes in GB?

3.What is known about how to prevent or respond to unlawful behaviour relatedto prejudiced attitudes?

These questions are explored in relation to all of the characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010 (age, race, sex, disability, religion or belief, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity). We refer to these as ‘protected characteristics’.1 This approach allows us to look at differences as well as commonalities between the protected characteristics, giving the Commission insight into where levers for change may be generally effective or specific to the experiences of discrimination, identity-based harassment and violence of those people with and who share particular protected characteristics.