Law Commission and misogyny

[nettie434]

The Law Commission has published its report on misogyny and hate crimes. It states:

The Law Commission has recommended that “sex or gender” should not be added to the protected characteristics for aggravated offences and enhanced sentencing as it would be ineffective at protecting women and girls and in some cases, counterproductive.

For example, if applied in the context of rape and domestic abuse it could make it more difficult to secure prosecutions and create unhelpful hierarchies of victims. However, if these contexts are excluded, it would make sex or gender very much the poor relation of hate crime characteristics, applicable only in certain, limited contexts.

This is the link to the report:

www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/hate-crime/

Women's groups and campaigners have criticised this decision:
www.thejusticegap.com/law-reform-body-rejects-calls-to-make-misogyny-a-hate-crime/

Am I the only person who doesn't really understand why it would be so difficult to add sex or gender to the 'hate crime' characteristics that can result in an increase in sentences?

I would be interested too. This was briefly discussed on the news and I am none the wiser. It reads as though women are less protected than the 5 characteristics, presuming they don’t fall under any of these.

I would be concerned about adding "sex" or "gender" to existing legislation rather than having a misogyny crime because I think it would be used against women more than it would be used for them. There would be a lot of MRAs arguing that every use of "dickhead" was a hate crime, for instance, and a lot more ways for abusive men to manipulate the law.

I'm also not that bothered about having a misogyny hate crime, though. Hate crime legislation seems ineffective and a waste of focus. But I do dislike the disparity of there being hate crime legislation for other protected characteristics but not sex.

I've just come across an article by Joan Smith. She is against having misogyny made a 'hate' crime - for a number of reasons, including that it would be exploited by men. She also doesn't like the concept of hate crime and would prefer that the police devote their attention to violent crime against women instead of to subjective complaints of hurt feelings. She cites some striking statistics comparing the volume and outcomes of the two categories.

"Another problem with making misogyny a hate crime is that some people who argue for the change are explicit in saying that protection should apply to trans women — male-bodied individuals who identify as women. They are already covered by existing hate crime legislation, where transgender identity is a protected characteristic, so this seems more like an attempt to change the legal definition of the word ‘woman’ than anything else. What a change in the law would do is open up a new front in the war on gender critical women, who would be the target of vexatious complaints from trans activists."

unherd.com/thepost/dont-make-misogyny-a-hate-crime/?mc_cid=cafb83df52&mc_eid=31e133b3a4

Misogyny would never be made a hate crime when you have a misogynist as Prime Minister as we do now.