Misogyny must be hate crime, says city lawyer
Legal expert’s bid to change the law backed by celebrities
AGROUP of male celebrities including actor Michael Sheen, comedian Jason Manford and football pundit Gary Neville have joined forces with a Birmingham legal expert to call for misogyny to be made a hate crime.
They are backing a campaign by Nazir Afzal to ensure offences motivated by a hatred against women would be treated on a par with crimes involving racism, religious intolerance and homophobia.
In an open letter, Mr Afzal, a lifelong campaigner for women’s rights and safety, joined MP Stella Creasy to press the House of Lords to accept the Newlove amendment to the Policing Bill when it comes before them.
Comedian David Baddiel and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams also joined the roll call.
Mr Afzal, a former chief prosecutor, is now urging all men to sign the letter, urging: “Men must take responsibility for male violence... sign the letter please!”
West Midlands Police is not among the forces which currently records misogyny or gender bias in their crime data.
Speaking to the Post about the motivation behind the letter, Mr Afzal said it was time to modernise hate crime laws to recognise the role of misogyny in crimes against women and girls.
Mr Afzal, who prosecuted the Rotherham grooming gang and has spent a lifetime working on behalf of victims of domestic violence, forced marriage and honour crimes, said misogyny was at the root of many crimes against women.
The letter also presses for misogyny to be treated as an aggravating feature in offending.
This would include, for example, burglars who deliberately targeted the homes of lone women.
He cited the case of the Manchester Arena bomber, who had deliberately targeted a concert that he knew would mainly attract girls and women, and who had a prior history of misogyny.
Including gender as a hate characteristic could ensure that young males in particular who displayed behaviour rooted in misogyny could be picked up sooner and their
behaviour challenged and, hopefully, changed.
The push for recognition has been backed by the West Midlands Victims’ Commissioner, Nicky Brennan.
She said: “Recording misogyny as a hate crime would help women have more trust in the police as well as giving the police the ability to get to the root causes of violence against women and girls.
“We need to challenge misogyny wherever it arises and the police need to show that they take it seriously as well.
“Making misogyny a hate crime would allow police forces to much better collect information around the scale of the problem, as well as changing the culture within policing and enable perpetrators to be held to account for their actions through the Criminal Justice System.
“The Prime Minister should be leading the way in the fight against misogyny and hate against women and I’d urge him to rethink this to protect women and help challenge attitudes which pose a danger to women.”
Race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity are the five protected characteristics under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020, but campaigners want sex and gender added to this.
Current sentencing guidelines specifically name ‘‘racial or religious’’ aspects of higher culpability offences as aggravating factors – meaning if these played a role in the crime the punishment will likely be more severe.
The ‘Newlove amendment’, put forward by Tory life peer and former victims’ commissioner Baroness Newlove, calls for a new clause to be inserted into the bill specifically outlining ‘‘aggravation of offences on grounds of hostility related to sex or gender’’.
Ms Creasy’s open letter states that ‘‘the continuing exclusion of misogyny and misandry from this list risks giving the impression that crimes motivated by hatred of women are somehow less serious than homophobic or racist violence’.’
It adds: ‘‘Making this simple change would send a powerful symbol about how seriously we as a society take violence against women and girls. It is time to give all women equal protection from being targeted for harm because they are women.’’