14 JANUARY 2019

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Fawcett have published new data today showing that gender is the most common cause of hate crime for women. Campaigners have written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and National Police Chiefs Council Chair, Sara Thornton, urging them to support making misogyny a hate crime. The letter calls on them to learn from the experience in Nottinghamshire, where police have introduced misogyny hate crime recording, which an online survey of Nottinghamshire residents found had an 87% approval rate. Read it here.

Fawcett Society Chief Executive Sam Smethers says:

“This data should be a wake-up call to all of us, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Women are routinely targeted with abuse and threats online and in our streets.  We know that black women, Muslim women and Jewish women are particularly affected. The way we tackle hate crime must reflect that.

“We have to recognise how serious misogyny is. It is at the root of violence against women and girls.  Yet it is so common that we don’t see it.  Instead it is dismissed and trivialised. By naming it as a hate crime we will take that vital first step.

“We recognise the pressure the police are under and will support their efforts to secure more resources. But at a time of rising hatred in our society, much of it targeted at women, we have to take this seriously and act.”

Read comments by Helen Voce and Katie Ghose, of Nottingham Women's Centre and Women's Aid.

Important findings from the data include:

• Hate crime motivated by gender was most common amongst 16-24 year olds and 25-44 year olds, with 23,000 and 25,000 incidents respectively
• Amongst all respondents to the Crime Survey of England and Wales, male and female, 67,000 gender hate crimes were recorded. Of these 15% or 10,000 were reported by men, less than any other strand for that sex other than gender identity.
• Gender as a motivating factor was slightly more common for white respondents than respondents from BAME backgrounds, at 32% compared to 25%.
• 70% of gender-motivated hate crime was attributed by survey respondents to being motivated by gender only, with incidents motivated by gender and age the next most common.

Read the full press release here

Download the joint open letter to Cressida Dick CBE QPM, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Service and Sara Thornton CBE QPM, Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council 

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