Susan Williams, a Conservative in the House of Lords and a junior interior minister, said in parliament on Wednesday that the government would, on an experimental basis, ask police forces to identify and record violent crimes against the person. , including stalking and harassment, as well as sexual offenses where the victim sees it as a result of hostility based on their gender. ”
An amendment to the law is not necessary, as it is already possible to classify these offenses as hate crimes. Williams said the reason the move was experimental was because the British Judicial Commission had said the designation would no longer be effective in justifying offenders.
Numerous prominent campaign groups in the UK have been campaigning for women’s hatred to become a hate crime for some time. However, the murder of Sarah Everard has forced a national conversation about the violence, harassment and intimidation experienced by women.
The action to record misogyny as a hate crime was welcomed by campaigners. Citizens UK, an organization that brings together communities in the UK to push for social change across society, tweeted: “Incredible news! … Surveying is such an important step – go beyond policing. With the data, society and the state can now build on this and adopt endemic #misogyny in our culture. “But others were concerned that the move would not necessarily lead to more crimes against women.
“We urgently need better data on the prevalence and extent of sexual harassment that women experience on a daily basis. A new way of taking crime on its own will not achieve this unless it is accompanied by funding for police training. and transportation workers, “says Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.
“One of the drivers behind the gap in sexual harassment data is that women do not report – and they do not report because they do not know who to report to or what to report.”
UN Women UK published a report last week stating that more than 95% of all women did not report their experiences of sexual harassment, while 98% of women aged 18-34 did not report sexual harassment.
There is no set date for the entry into force of the new measures, but Williams told parliament that the government “will soon start with the National Police Members’ Council and will force it to start with the experimental collection of data from this. autumn. ”