ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore the benefits and challenges of including misogyny as a hate crime category, firstly at the level of individual police force policy changes, then as a more comprehensive change in the law at a national level. Being the first police force in the world to include misogyny as a hate crime in April 2016, Nottinghamshire Police extended definitions of hate crime through their policy change. This step led to an increase in women reporting hate crimes and incidents, despite there being no legislative change. Other police forces in England have now also followed suit, though the extent to which they have taken up the term ‘misogyny’ has varied from force-to-force. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, integrating criminology and linguistics, our work in this chapter focuses on the significant impact that misogyny hate crime and fear of street harassment has had on the everyday lives of women and girls in Nottinghamshire, making a clear case for a national roll-out of the policy. We argue that this roll-out needs to be immediate, especially as street harassment and violence against women and girls has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic (Plan International UK 2020). We also critically examine how the language choice of the term ‘misogyny’ hate crime is received and interpreted. As part of this, we investigate lay understandings and reactions towards use of the term ‘misogyny’ as well as considering alternative terms, those proposed by the Law Commission’s (2020) Hate Crime Consultation. Finally, we look towards the future and focus on the importance of education about gender-based hate crime, its illegality and social and cultural unacceptability at all levels of society. This includes strategies to raise awareness of policy and legal changes, including a focus on newly designed educational tools and emergent strategies from the mass media, including social media for engaging with multiple stakeholders to successfully implement legal change and work towards the longer-term, global goal of eradicating gender-based violence.
