North Yorkshire Police count Misogyny as a Hate Crime

There are calls for all police forces in the North East to recognise misogyny as a hate crime.

North Yorkshire became the second force in the country this week to record street harassment, heckling or being followed as 'misogyny'.

Inspector Mark Khan from the force explains why they’ve decided to bring it into force;

“You need to go away and think about it from a women’s perspective.

“Misogyny is something that’s hidden from men, it’s difficult for men to understand it.”

The force announced the decision on their Facebook page, and have seen some backlash since it went live.”

Inspector Khan speaking a couple of hours after the post went live;

“Everything that’s on Facebook has been posted by men, and it is negative.

“We’ve already been asked – does that mean wolf-whistling is illegal? – if you think it’s just about wolf-whistling, then you don’t understand it.”

Sarah Green,Co Director at End Violence Against Women Coalition, said:“It’s important that the police record it when women want torreport it because it helps the whole community to get a picture of exactly howand where and when this happens.“We’re not simply talking about the odd flattering remark or wolfwhistle, we’re talking about women being shouted at being followed beingtouched sometimes by strangers and in general made to feel like they don’t haveas much right to be in public spaces and men and boys do.”Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird DBE QC, said:“I will be closely following the roll out of recordingmisogyny as a hate crime in Nottingham and North Yorkshire and will givecareful consideration to the results following the implementation of thepolicy.“My worry is that if you come up with a relatively smallnumber of misogynistic crimes then we will start to get a distorted view thatthere isn’t much of it about when actually the experience of Rape Crisis,Women’s Aid, ourselves, everybody I speak to as a woman is that there is a lotof it.”A spokesperson for Durham Constabulary said:“We have no plans to bring in any changes as our existing hate crime policy alreadycovers offences where gender is perceived to be a motivating factor – ofcourse, each force is free to amend or adapt its own policy as it sees fit.”In her blog, announcing the force’s implementation, North Yorkshire’s DCC Lisa Winward wrote;

“There are many women who have to consider what they wear, what route to walk to work, what time they will be returning home – all of them changing their behaviour and daily routines because of the experiences they have had. And more relative to this debate, they feel that they have no power to challenge or change it.

I’m sure there are women who can deal with this, laugh it off – or challenge back – but as the video shows, there are many who don’t feel confident enough to do so, or that the situation would quickly escalate into something more sinister than ‘banter’ if they did. At times they are intimidated and fearful of just stepping out of their door. This can’t be right or dismissed can it?

Very sadly, we live in a world where the reality is that women have to take extra measures such as carrying rape alarms, downloading protection apps for their phones, avoiding certain routes after certain times and look over their shoulder whilst walking home – all to avoid harassment or potential attack. The feeling of vulnerability is real for some.”