Misogyny as a hate crime – what it means and why it’s needed

Recently, the government announced that it will instruct all police forces across the UK to start recording crimes motivated by sex or gender on an experimental basis- effectively making misogyny a hate crime. This follows the example of Nottinghamshire Police in 2016, followed by another 10 police forces since. 

Classing misogyny as a category of hate crime would not make anything illegal that isn’t already. The law has not changed – it is solely about how we record these crimes.

The Fawcett Society – the UK’s leading membership charity campaigning for gender equality – celebrated this as a victory, after years of campaigning for this result. We have taken action such as calling on police chiefs to make misogyny a hate crime nationwide, revealing data that gender is the most common basis for hate crime attacks on women, supporting the recent bill heading to the House of Lords, contributing to the Law Commission consultation on the subject, and launching a MP letter writing campaign to support the change.

Read the full article here.