A police force which attracted nationwide criticism for classifying “misogyny” as a hate crime recorded no particular jump in offences after it made the change.
Figures obtained by Heat Street show that 2016 has seen an unremarkable level of offences linked to hateful motives, despite the efforts of Nottinghamshire Police to widen the definition.
It calls into question the arguments behind making the change in the first place, which are predicated on there being widespread crimes against women which the previous system could not deal with.
Their response involved widening the definition of hate crime to one so broad that catcalling and making a pass at a woman in a bar could now merit police intervention.
But, according to crime figures which cover the three months following the change, Nottinghamshire is not the hive of misogyny its police force supposed it to be.
The force introduced the new hate crime definition on May 6 this year, and across the month recorded 43% fewer hate offences than in 2015, and 27% fewer than in 2014.
For June 2016 the figures were 43% lower than in 2015 and 16% down on 2014.
In July this year hate offences were up – by 6% on 2015 and 5% on 2014.
The force did not break down its figures by type of hate crime.
July figures showed a spike in hate offences all three years – a phenomenon which continued in 2016 and the force could not explain.
The overall picture is one of a force that is not experiencing a significant spike in hate-linked offences being committed, despite adding a whole new category.
Nottinghamshire Police is the first force to consider cat calling a hate crime https://t.co/DHdRc7uKQw pic.twitter.com/jQJIWt48t9
— Yahoo Style UK (@YahooStyleUK) July 15, 2016
A statement from the force insisted that misogynistic crime was being reported, but declined to share the full figures for analysis.
A spokesman said: “The force introduced the procedure for treating reported incidents of misogynistic behaviour or language as a hate crime on May 6.
“In the past two months, misogyny incidents have been reported about a third as much as homophobia, half as much as disability and as frequently as religious and transgender hate incidents.
“Given that homophobia has been reported as hate crime for over a decade, for us, beginning from a zero base on misogyny, this represents a successful start and we would expect reports to increase over time. It certainly doesn’t suggest that there never was a problem to address.”
