Written submission from Susannah Fish (SPP0056)

Executive Summary

• Nottinghamshire Police were the first police force in the UK to begin recording Misogyny as a Hate Crime in April 2016, and is national as well as international best practice
• A local partnership approach and commitment from the Police and Crime Commissioner were important determinants of successful implementation
• Misogyny is the soil in which violence against women and girls grows.  It is recommended that it is misogyny that is a hate crime not gender as a hate crime
• Joint training with the womens sector and testimony of women were important for its credibility and acceptance by a still male dominated organisation
• Police officers understand the link between sexual harassment of women and girls in public places and violence and sexual offending against women and girls
• The prevalence of sexual harassment is not reflected in the volume of instances reported to police, consistent with under reporting of other types of the crime
• The impact of sexual harassment of women and girls in public places is significant and must not be under-estimated
• Inter-sectional nature of misogyny as a hate crime is a significant factor e.g. Islamophobia disproportionally directed towards women
• Victim satisfaction levels are high
• Impact of implementing misogyny as a hate crime, particularly on women in terms of confidence in policing and their own confidence should not be under-estimated
• Independent academic evaluation by Nottingham Trent University and University of Nottingham commissioned.  Reporting in the Spring 2018
• Significant amount of campaigning and engagement with stakeholders across the country working towards national rollout
• Other police forces have adopted, with others committed awaiting national agreement on whether the category is misogyny or gender based hate crime
• The Home Office National Independent Advisory Group on Hate crime has unanimously backed misogyny as a hate crime
• National Police Chiefs Council to decide whether to adopt gender as a hate crime consistently across England and Wales – decision anticipated April 2018
• Legislation and sentencing requires amending to reflect the inclusion of misogyny/gender as a hate crime

1. I am a former Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police, retiring in March 2017, and am now the Managing Director of StarFish Consulting.  As Deputy Chief Constable and Chief Constable, I was responsible for leading the adoption and implementation misogyny as a hate crime across Nottinghamshire. I have subsequently led a campaign to have misogyny as a hate crime adopted nationally by policing.

2. Nottinghamshire Police were the first police force in the country to recognise and start to record and investigate misogyny as a hate crime.  Nottinghamshire Police began recording misogyny as a hate crime in April 2016. This arose out of a hate crime inquiry carried out by Nottingham Citizens in 2014.

3. Nottingham Citizens (the local branch of Citizens UK) carried out an inquiry into the reporting of hate crimes in Nottingham. Gender wasn’t initially included in the survey. However, as the inquiry began analysing the results, they found one very clear trend emerging: women reported being victimised simply because of their gender. No similar claims were made by men during this inquiry.

4. The inquiry uncovered a need for further work to identify and catalogue crimes and incidences perpetrated towards women solely because of their gender. Specifically, the Citizens Hate Crime Commission found:

• 38% of women reporting hate crime explicitly linked this to gender, a category currently unrecognised in anti-hate crime legislation, enforcement and data collection.
• Women were less likely to report incidents motivated by misogyny to the police than other types of hate crimes.
• Only 28% of women surveyed would report any crimes to the police.
• The greatest number of incidents take place in public but also occur on public transport, work, home and school/college/university.
• The impact on victims is significant, with “psychological wellbeing acutely undermined”.

5. Nottingham Women’s Centre, in response to the Citizens report, put forward the case that misogyny was a missing category under current hate crime definitions and that, given the scale of harassment and abuse that women face daily, policies should be revised to include this. An inaugural Safer for Women Summit was held in September 2015, coordinated by Nottingham Women’s Centre, Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner and Nottingham Trent University, chaired by the then Deputy Chief Constable Sue Fish. The event culminated in a call for individuals, agencies and businesses to make a pledge towards a new Women’s Safety Charter for Nottinghamshire, which Nottinghamshire Police signed up to.

6. A second summit was held in 2016 chaired by then Chief Constable Sue Fish, with speakers including the Chief Executive of The Fawcett Society, Sam Smethers, and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, Laura Bates. Nottingham Women’s Centre has continued working with the police, including establishing a multi-agency steering group which includes representatives from Nottinghamshire Police, Nottingham Women’s Centre, Hollaback!, Nottingham Trent University and the Crown Prosecution Service.

7. Police and Crime Commissioner, Paddy Tipping, pledged to work to tackle street harassment and misogynistic hate crime prioritising it in his Police and Crime plan for 2016/17 and 2017/18. The goal of Nottinghamshire Police is to increase reporting of misogynistic hate crime, this being one of the areas where an increase in figures can be viewed as a positive step. The PCC and Nottinghamshire Police want to give women the confidence and faith in policing services to report any behaviour that leaves them feeling intimidated, uncomfortable or threatened.

8. In Nottinghamshire, Misogyny hate crime has the same procedural approach as other hate crimes – which benefits from well-established good practice.  All relevant operational and control room officers and staff received training in recognising and responding to misogyny hate crime, which was carried out by a staff member from Nottingham Women’s Centre and the Nottinghamshire Police training team, funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner. The training is now mainstreamed.

9. Interestingly, my experience of delivering training to the police tells us that, even though domestic abuse is not included within the hate crime policy, officers are often able to recognise that misogyny is likely to be at its root.

10. Similarly, officers identified that misogyny hate crime can act as a bridge to women talking about (and recognising) other forms of violence against women. Where women may feel that domestic abuse is something that happens to ‘other women’ and is not linked to inequality, the evidence shows they are more readily able to recognise this with misogyny hate crime.

11. The introduction of Misogyny as a form of hate crime by Nottinghamshire Police became a very high profile event in the media.  There was inevitably some questioning/criticism within the media, which broadly speaking was characterised along the lines of trivialising the behaviours experienced by women (e.g. referring to “wolf-whistling”), that this is discriminating against men, and that the police are trying to regulate social interaction (flirting).  There was also some misunderstanding in reporting that Nottinghamshire Police had amended the law. 

12. Using the evidence base for the decision to address Misogyny that the behaviours experienced routinely by women are seriously sexually aggressive, obscene, and violent, the force was well placed to refute the trivialisation question and assertion that this was “normal” male/female interaction. 

13. Much of the criticism of Misogyny hate crime mirrors very closely the excuses made for other forms of hate crime both in the past and currently, namely that it is “banter”, victims lacking a sense of humour/perspective, making mountains out of molehills and “political correctness" by a “liberal elite”.

14. There was some suggestion/concern expressed that the introduction would open a floodgate of reports that the police couldn’t cope with.  This too mirrors concern when other forms of hate crime where introduced.  As with other forms of hate crime, the real issue is under-reporting and Nottinghamshire Police did not expect to be inundated with reports and this has not happened.

15. Notwithstanding some criticism, the media coverage overall was assessed as being very supportive and positive; it was notable that in almost every piece containing some degree of question there was a voice (generally a woman’s) expressing very clear and direct support to provide counterbalance.

16. In force direct feedback was received.  Critical comments were almost universally from men and tended to reflect the questions raised in the media.  Contact was generally in the form of direct correspondence with the Chief Constable and OPCC, comments on the force’s Facebook page and FOI requests.

17. The evidence also shows that there is a great deal of awareness-raising to be done around the impact, seriousness, and implications of this type of behaviour, which often leads to women changing their behaviours such as routes to and from work or social activities, their clothes, and their lives. 

18. The below are some of the words women used to describe how they were made to feel after experiencing misogynistic behaviour:

19. The number of crimes recorded in 2016/17 was 97, and 2017/18 to end of January was 70.  Reported crime types include sexual offences, public order, assaults, threat of criminal damage and harassment offences.  To date there have been 4 arrests (2 harassment, 2 public order), 1 charge (Harassment), however there have been a significant number of occasions where community or restorative solutions have been used where it is the wish of the victim and is proportionate given the nature of the offence and the history of the perpetrator.

20. Misogyny hate crime is included in victim satisfaction surveys.  Data from the survey process identifies the following:

• 88% of respondents were satisfied with the way they were treated by the police.
• 94% of respondents felt that the police took the matter seriously.
• 94% of respondents felt reassured after dealing with the police.
• 94% of respondents felt confident in the police following their experience.
• 82% of respondents were satisfied by the actions taken by the police.
• 88% of respondents were satisfied by the overall response to their report.

(All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.)

21. Interestingly since the introduction of misogyny as a hate crime there has been an uplift of victim satisfaction in other types of hate crime.  My hypothesis for this is that police officers are, still, in the main white, male, ostensibly heterosexual, from a Christian tradition, and without a disability. However approximately 50% of front line officers (30% overall) are women and this has enabled an improved empathy with other hate crime victims – “walked in my shoes”.  When female officers gave powerful testimony during training I also saw this enabling some male officers to understand that colleagues who they see as “powerful”, “strong”, “takes no nonsense” women can also be victims and shifting their paradigm of victimisation and victim impact.

22. Sue Fish and the Police and Crime Commissioner, Paddy Tipping undertook to campaign to implement misogyny as a crime nationwide.  Below are examples of how the issue has continued to be championed with the goal of national rollout:

• In October 2016 CC Sue Fish spoke alongside Mel Jeffs, then chief Executive of Nottingham Womens Centre (NWC) and Stella Creasy MP on Nottinghamshire’s ground-breaking work on misogyny as a hate crime at the Nottingham in Parliament Day.

• In January 2017 CC Sue Fish was awarded Upstander of the Year in the National Hate Crime Awards for her leadership on misogyny as a hate crime.

• In February 2017, misogyny and hate crime police leads were examined by the Home Affairs Select Committee.  The evidence was very well received and fully endorsed by the Committee.  The Chair, Yvette Cooper MP, expressed surprise that more police forces had not followed the lead of Nottinghamshire. 

• In February, misogyny featured on the ITV Tonight Show; Harassment Uncovered presented by Julie Etchingham.  CC Sue Fish highlighted the work in Nottinghamshire and the feedback on Twitter #HarassmentUncovered hashtag exemplified the strength of feeling in supporting Nottinghamshire’s approach.

• In March 2017 CC Sue Fish attended the All-Party Parliament Group on Domestic Violence, chaired by Maria Miller MP to speak about Nottinghamshire’s landmark decision and experience, and was again extremely positively received.  

• Since her retirement in March 2017 Sue Fish has continued to work with the NPCC lead on hate crime, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, who agrees with the need to take positive and effective steps to address misogyny. 

• As a result, Sue Fish spoke at the National Hate Crime conference and led a workshop in May 2017.

• Sue Fish has continued to promote the work of Nottinghamshire Police and the cause of misogyny as a hate crime speaking at Cambridge University at a Women of the Year event in June 2017and co-hosted a workshop at the national Women’s Aid conference in July 2017.  Professor Neil Chakraborti, Professor of Criminology and Director of the National Hate Crime Centre at Leicester University also asked to learn about this work and she presented to him and his team in July 2017; she has subsequently delivered a guest lecture, the video from which is included in both under graduate and post-graduate teaching modules. 

• Sue has also presented to the South Wales Police Chief Officer Team and OPCC in August 2017, and at the launch of Sheffield’s “Know the Line” campaign in November 2017.  She was invited to the Women of the Year lunch in October because of her inspirational work in this arena.  

•                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         In November 2017, Sue Fish presented her findings to the National Hate Crime Independent Advisory Group (IAG) to Government and NPCC. They gave their unanimous backing to the expansion of hate crime to include such crimes as misogyny rather than gender based hate crime.

•                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         In March 2018 Sue Fish is key note speaker at a conference in Cornwall to relaunch the womens sector and her theme is misogyny as a hate crime.

23.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          PCC Paddy Tipping has commissioned an independent, academic evaluation of the implementation of misogyny as a hate crime by Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham.  It is due to report in May 2018.

24.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          So far five other Forces have followed the stance of Nottinghamshire and have begun to record misogyny or gender as a hate crime, with many more committed to act but awaiting the national steer as to misogyny or gender.

25.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          A paper is currently being prepared to present to Chief Constables Council in 2018 for adoption of gender as a hate crime.

26. Criminal justice partners, most notably CPS have been engaged with and have not yet indicated their intention to extend hate crime policy.  Policing has worked together over recent years to harmonise CJS policies to ensure efficiency and to allow robust data.

27.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The Home Office at both Ministerial and Officer level have been engaged with the development of this additional strand, and are privately supportive, they state it is for the Police to reform themselves not for the Home Office to direct the Service.  Should the Police Service make a positive decision it has been indicated that they will be openly supportive, though favouring gender over misogyny on the grounds of human rights.

28.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          It has been apparent in talking to womens groups, stakeholders such as the Home Office and the CPs that the law and sentencing are not fit for purpose with the adoption of misogyny (or gender) as a hate crime.  This is particularly relevant at the lower tier of offending, for example, Section 4 or 5 of the Public Order Act should have aggravating factors if misogyny is present.  Likewise, with sentencing so there is parity with other recognised strands of hate crime.

29.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Misogyny or gender?  There has been extensive debate as to whether this strand of hate crime should be defined as misogyny or gender.  The exclusive recognition of misogyny would send a clear message that policing recognise the specific risks faced by women.  It is also argued that such exclusivity plays into the hands of policy ‘detractors’ and may lead to legal challenge under the Equality Act 2010 in that hate crime policy follows a ‘human rights’ model.

30.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          After taking evidence locally and nationally, Nottinghamshire Police took the decision to identify Misogyny specifically to identify the problem for what it is – behaviour by men against women. 

31.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Nottinghamshire Police recognised that it is possible for men for experience prejudicial behaviour by women.  Its approach to hate crime has always been inclusive and has maintained an “Other” category to record hate crimes that fall outside of the five nationally monitored strands, so that the force is able to record what is generally termed ‘Misandry’.  No reports of misandry have yet been received.

32.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The decision to record Misogyny was taken to be clear and upfront in identifying the real and present problem faced routinely by one half of the population through application of the same principles that apply to other strands of hate crime – that they are victimised simply through their identity as women.

33.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The difference in the level of reporting following the decision to identify Misogyny suggests to the force that this explicit identification is necessary to encourage women to report the hate crime they experience purely because of their gender.

34.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Local partners were strongly supportive of the Misogyny hate crime rather than gender as it is part of a continuum of violence specifically targeted against women and girls.

35.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          In adopting Misogyny as a form of hate crime, Nottinghamshire Police was also mindful of the importance of intersectionality in hate crime, especially when targeted at women, particularly but not exclusively transphobia, homophobia, and islamophobia, with the disproportionality of women being targeted.

36.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I believe that the criteria for classification is misogyny as a hate crime. However, should an equal rights approach of gender be taken, I have no doubt the numbers will show it for what it is – misogyny - and that will be most powerful of all.  Action is needed now.

March 2018