Misogyny now considered a hate crime by Nottinghamshire Police

Nottinghamshire police have become the first authority in the country to officially recognise misogyny as a hate crime.

The force now classifies misogyny on a par with other hate crimes, such as those based on someone’s gender identity or race.

Abuse or harassment such as cat-calling, wolf-whistling, unwanted sexual advances and the use of mobile phones to send or take photos without permission will now be regarded as as a specific hate, which the force further defined as “Incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman and includes behaviour targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman.”

Cavendish freshers were caught shouting obscene chants in September 2014

 The initiative aims to encourage women to report incidents, which currently may not be regarded as crime, Chief Constable Sue Fish said: ‘Nottinghamshire Police is committed to taking misogynistic hate crime seriously and encourages anyone who is affected by it to contact us without hesitation.’

Other procedures that will be put in place include checking if the victim can be supported or if measures can be done to prevent them being a target. Melanie Jeffs, centre manager at Nottingham Women’s Centre, said: “Recording this as a hate crime will give us a detailed picture of how often, when and where it is happening. It has been very difficult to build that picture before but we will now get detailed data to analyse. Showing that the police take it seriously will also give people the confidence to come forward and report offences.”