As the campaign to make misogyny a hate crime returns to the House of Lords in the UK, Nottingham Trent University Associate Professor Loretta Trickett at Nottingham Law School explains why this recognition is so important in tackling violence against women in Police Professional.

"Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said while the Government understands and shares the “genuine concern” about the safety of women and girls, a Lords amendment to the Bill “runs the risk of being damaging to the cause of women’s safety” and could have “unintended consequences”. His comments echoed the Law Commission’s recommendations on the reform of hate crime that adding ‘sex or gender’ to the list of ‘protected characteristics’ would do more harm than good, making it more difficult to secure convictions," says Loretta.

"It will leave many women disappointed and frustrated. The charity Fawcett Society, in particular, said not including misogyny within the hate crime framework “ignores the experiences of women who are subject to hatred based on multiple factors”."

"It seems the Government and the Law Commission do not appear to understand that misogyny often drives male crimes against women. So without a recognition of this, it is difficult to understand motivations and design responses and preventative programmes," she adds.

"They also failed to understand that making sex/gender a hate crime, does not mean that all crimes against women and girls would automatically be prosecuted as hate crime. You need a baseline offence to prosecute as a hate crime and have to show hostility; hate crime does not trump other offences."

Read the full article by Nottingham Trent University's Loretta Trickett.

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