Sexism could become hate crime backed by harsher sentences

SEXIST criminals could get longer sentences under plans to make misogyny a type of hate crime.

Senior police officers are considering whether to count misogynistic offences among hate crimes, which would mean longer sentences for perpetrators found to have acted out of hatred for women.

Currently crimes where a victim has been targeted on the grounds of characteristics including their race, sexuality or disability can be deemed aggravated offences and the perpetrators given longer sentences, but gender is not one of these categories.

A pilot scheme that has taken place in Nottingham since last year is due to report back to police chiefs, who will consider whether to make wider changes affecting forces across the country.

Speaking to the Women and Equalities Committee, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, the National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman on hate crime, said he believed police were “going to take this forward”, although it would also require action from the courts and Crown Prosecution Service.

In 2014, the Law Commission recommended that the “scope” of hate crime be examined to see whether further categories should be introduced, with anti-muslim hate crimes given their own category in 2015, bringing them in line with antisemitic attacks.

It recommended that a “full-scale review is conducted of the operation of the aggravated offences and

of the enhanced sentencing system”. Last year Nottingham police announced a pilot allowing women to report crimes as driven by misogyny, and former chief constable Sue Fish is currently presenting evidence to the NPCC.

During the pilot, police revealed that they investigated a case of misogyny every three days during July and August 2016, and said women were calling its helpline to explicitly ask that a crime be recorded as a sexist hate crime.

If the changes came in, sexist language or behaviour would be treated as an aggravating factor to other crimes such as assault and harassment.

Police are to consider whether the shift would require a statutory change or whether it could be done through guidance to individual forces.

“You would take any offence that the person reported and if it reached the evidential standard and had been reported as a hate crime then it would attract an enhanced sentence,” added Mr Hamilton.

“So it’s not about a new crime of hate, it’s about adding another category to the enhanced process that layers on top of an offence when it occurs.”

Prison sentences and fines can be “uplifted” under current CPS guidelines where an offender is found to have acted out of prejudice.

Responding to a question from Jess Phillips, the Labour MP, Mr Hamilton indicated his own support for a review of the categories, but said other agencies, such as the CPS, courts and government, would also have to implement the change.

“I think the time is right to consider it,” he added, saying he hoped it would encourage women to report crimes.