Misogyny - The University of Nottingham

Professor Louise Mullany has been leading the LiPP team’s research into the language of hate crime on the street, online and in other public spaces since 2016.

A key part of this work involves investigating the language of 'misogyny' as a hate crime, following Nottinghamshire Police's decision to become the first force in the country to make misogyny a recognised hate crime in April 2016. LiPP organised a policy event at the House of Commons in October 2016 as part of Nottingham in Parliament Day, including a panel on the language of misogyny as a hate crime with Stella Creasy MP and Chief Constable Susannah Fish OBE, QPM.

Misogyny Hate Crime Evaluation Report

Professor Mullany has worked in collaboration with Dr. Loretta Trickett at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, on a Research Evaluation Report, commissioned by the Office of the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner and Nottingham Women's Centre to assess the impact of Nottinghamshire Police's change in policy.

The evaluation report found that people in Nottinghamshire will not tolerate misogyny hate crime and a policy to record misogyny hate crimes introduced in 2016 by Nottinghamshire Police is already shifting the attitudes of both victims and potential perpetrators. Over 87% of people surveyed thought a policy change in 2016 to make misogyny a hate crime in Nottinghamshire, was a good idea.

This work fed into the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Women and Equalities Select Committee review of street harassment, contributing to proposed amendments to the Upskirting Bill and the government tasking the Law Commission with reviewing hate crime laws in 2019.

Click here to read the press release

The Law Commission’s consultation paper on hate crime laws, published in September 2020, cites Professor Mullany and Dr Trickett’s research in recommending that gender or sex should become a protected characteristic for the purposes of hate crime law.

Click here to read the Misogyny Hate Crime Evaluation Report

Click here to read the Executive Summary

Educational resources

A key recommendation of the Misogyny Hate Crime Evaluation Report was to use educational campaigns, which actively and positively engage boys and men, to change negative attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate Misogyny Hate Crime.

Dawn of the Unread was commissioned to produce a comic book, intended to be the first of several such educational tools.

Click here to read more about the comic