Leeds University students lead call for misogyny to be reclassified as a hate crime

A student officer at Leeds University Union has joined forces with two other Student Union officers SUs in the north of England to lead a national campaign for a change in the law to make misogyny a hate crime.

Amara Relf, Union Affairs and Communications Officer at LUU, has worked with fellow officers at Liverpool Guild of Students and Newcastle University SU to launch a petition urging the Government to update the Sentencing Act 2020, to record crimes motivated by misogyny as hate crimes and introduce tougher laws for online abuse.

In England and Wales alone, more than one million crimes involving violence against women and girls were recorded in 2022/23, around 3,000 offences every day – a 37 per cent increase over the previous five years. However, in practice, sexual harassment is rarely criminalised.  This lack of consequence not only enables harmful behaviour but also actively discourages reporting.

Back in 2021, the Law Commission advised against adding sex or gender as protected characteristics for aggravated offences, arguing it could be ineffective and potentially hinder prosecutions.

However, Labour’s 2021 green paper Ending Violence Against Women and Girls supported recognising misogyny as a hate crime and allowing enhanced sentences where crimes are linked to a victim’s sex or gender. Having been unchanged since then, this new petition now calls on the government to fulfil its pledge to change the law.

via Wikimedia Commons

LUU’s Amara Relf collaborated with Lily Allan (Wellbeing and Communities Officer at Newcastle University SU) and Holly Thompson (Deputy President at Liverpool Guild of Students). Their petition has already amassed enough signatures to trigger a government response, but they aim to reach 100,000 signatures to secure a parliamentary debate on the issue.

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A joint statement from the group said: “When we began our roles as sabbatical officers, one priority was clear: Improving student safety. Very quickly, it became apparent that while serious sexual offences can carry severe sentences, the everyday behaviours that shape women’s lives; catcalling, groping, sexually suggestive comments and harassment are too often minimised, overlooked, or left entirely unpunished.”

Amara added: “We’re calling on every students’ union in the country to share this petition with their members to show nationwide strength of feeling on this important issue.”

For the group, student safety does not just “stop at campus gates.” What happens online, can shape attitudes offline. Misogyny is plaguing social media, with Amnesty International recording 73 per cent of social media users having witnessed misogynistic content online with half encountering it on a weekly basis. 

Male violence against women and girls is a growing societal problem. As a student movement, we need to influence the Government to recognise and address it through harsher sentencing, increased reporting, and a clampdown on everyday harassment – making life safer for women at university and in the wider community.

To sign the petition, visit this website.

The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.