Could Misogyny Be Made A Hate Crime?

Misogyny could be recognised as a hate crime throughout England and Wales after a recent trial in one police district suggested it would help improve women's safety. Nottinghamshire Police began recording misogyny as a hate crime in July, defining the offence as: "Incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman and includes behaviour targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman." At the time, Chief Constable Sue Fish told the BBC, "Nottinghamshire Police is committed to taking misogynistic hate crime seriously and encourages anyone who is affected by it to contact us without hesitation." The Guardian now reports that 20 investigations into misogynistic hate crimes were launched in the district in two months, prompting police forces across England and Wales to consider following Nottinghamshire's lead by expanding their definition of hate crime to include misogyny. Dave Alton, the Nottinghamshire force's hate crime manager, said the number of reports of misogynistic hate crime is "comparable with other, more established, categories of hate crime" in the area. "We have received numerous reports and have been able to provide a service to women in Nottinghamshire who perhaps wouldn’t have approached us six months ago," he told The Guardian. "The reality is that all of the reports so far have required some form of police action.”