A group of MPs and campaigners have called for misogyny to be made a hate crime as new data reveals gender is the most common cause of hate crime for women.
Analysis of crime figures by the Fawcett Society estimated there were around 67,000 incidents of hate crime based on gender last year – with the women’s rights charity saying 57,000 of those were targeted at women.
This is more than almost any other category of hate crime but crimes based on gender are currently not recorded.
The Fawcett Society has sent a letter to Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, and Sara Thornton, National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) chair. calling for the police to support their calls for misogyny to be criminalise.
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 the letter. Read more