MPs say hating women should become crime

MISOGYNY SHOULD be made a hate crime, a group of MPs and campaigners have said.

MPs Jo Swinson, Stella Creasy and Peter Bottomley, former home secretary Jacqui Smith, women’s rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst and Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping are among those to have signed a letter, sent by gender equality charity the Fawcett Society, urging police to help them criminalise it. The letter was sent to Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick and National Police Chiefs Council chair Chief Constable Sara Thornton.

Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “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.”

Hate crimes and incidents are defined as those perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a characteristic. Police in Nottinghamshire, North Yorkshire, Avon and Somerset have already adopted misogyny or gender as a form of hate crime for recording purposes.