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UK Police Forces Considering Classing Misogyny As Hate Crime

UK Police Forces Considering Classing Misogyny As Hate Crime

A new policy could see incidents such as wolf-whistling classed as hate crimes

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Wolf-whistling, cat-calling and other 'misogynistic' behaviour could soon be recorded as a hate crime following a trial scheme.

Under new proposals, forces across the UK are being asked to consider classing incidents of sexist abuse and harassment against women as a hate crime, in a similar way to how racism or homophobia is currently regarded.

PA

Nottinghamshire Police introduced the new measures back in 2016, covering incidents including wolf-whistling and cat-calling while on the street, and unwanted physical attention.

Campaigners for the new rules say misogyny - which cops define as 'behaviour targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman' - is a hate crime and it should be classed as such.

Helen Voce, from Nottingham Women's Centre, said: "We believe misogyny is the 'soil' in which violence against women and girls (VAWG) grows.

"The same attitudes at the root of sexism and harassment are the same attitudes that drive more serious domestic and sexual violence.

"Classifying misogyny as a hate crime enables the police to deal robustly with the root causes of violence against women."

PA

In Nottingham, where the scheme was trilled, researchers have said it has caused a 'shift in attitudes'.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University put together The Misogyn Hate Crime Evaluation report, which recommends rolling out the policy to the rest of the UK.

Dr Loretta Trickett, who worked on the report, told the BBC: "Much of this behaviour on this spectrum is criminal behaviour, there's no doubt about that. People could have gone to the police about it before.

"But because of the culture we have, it's just acceptable to intimidate women on the street, to go up to a woman and touch her backside, or to comment on her body and put her in fear of an assault."

In a survey by the researchers, 25.5 percent of female respondents said they had been followed home, 62.9 percent said they'd been whistled at and 46.2 percent had been groped. Shockingly, 24.7 percent of women said they had been sexually assaulted.


The new policy won't change whether anything is legal or illegal - for example sexual assault will still be recorded as sexual assault, but it will also be recorded as a hate crime. Whereas wolf-whistling, which isn't technically a crime, would be recorded as a 'hate incident', the BBC reports. This means that those found guilty of such crimes would face harsher sentences.

A National Police Chiefs' Council spokesman said: "Police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland annually monitor five strands of hate crime.

"Police chiefs will be presented with a paper that asks them to consider the case for monitoring gender-based hate crime in the same way."

Source: BBC

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, crime