Hostility towards men could become a hate crime

Last month, a review by the Law Commission said it would look at whether offences driven by misogyny should be treated as hate crimes.

Given that women are disproportionately impacted by sex crimes, on average are paid less than their male counterparts, and face a multitude of discrimination in the public sphere, this move was welcome by women’s rights groups.

However it has emerged that the same review will also consider crimes motivated by misandry – or the hatred of men – to be treated as hate crimes.

The Law Commission is an independent body that looks at laws to see if they need to updated, and the hate crime review is being pushed by Labour MP Stella Creasy.

She wants misogyny to be recognised the same way as racial and religious hatred – given the level of harassment women and young girls face on a daily basis.

But why is hostility against men being included in this?

According to the BBC, Home Office minister Baroness Williams says the government:

[Always responds to] what the public and other organisations are telling us.

It may well be that particular strand is not necessary to take forward, but we are asking them to look at it.

The terms of reference to the review said it will consider “whether crimes motivated by, or demonstrating, hatred based on sex and gender characteristics, or hatred of older people or other potentially protected characteristics", should be hate crimes.

Hate crimes include verbal abuse, physical violence and graffiti of property, and they are known as aggravated offences.

Hate crimes tend to impact marginalised communities such as the LGBT+ community and certain religious communities, as well as women.

Last year a record number of anti-Muslim attacks and incidents of abuse were reported last year.

Monitoring group Tell Mama saw 1,201 verified reported submitted in 2017 of anti-Muslim hate. In total there were more than 83,000 reports of hate crime in England and Wales.

The move to add misandry to the review has gotten mixed responses...

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