Engender blog

Why is sex and gender not included within hate crime legislation in Scotland?

There has been much discussion in media in recent weeks focussed on sex and gender not being included within hate crime legislation in Scotland. At first glance, it might seem appealing to expand hate crime aggravators to include sex, as an obvious way to increase protections for women. However, in reality, the hate crimes model was not designed to address the nature and scale of the gender-based violence and harassment women face in our society. The hate crimes model focusses on protect minorities. Women are not a minority- they make up 51% of Scotland’s population.  

Women face a wide and complex range of gender-based violence and harassment in workplaces, public settings, online and at home. This violence and harassment are rooted in and drive forward gender inequality. Broader, more in-depth protections are therefore needed for women. Using hate crimes legislation to address misogynistic violence against women has proven to be inadequate in other countries that have trialled this approach. It has also shown potential to undermine more targeted efforts to address these issues. 

Ultimately, we need an entire legal framework and system that recognises the impact of sexism, misogyny and violence against women by design. A sex-based hate crime aggravator that is ‘added on’ to existing crimes won’t do this – we need a set of standalone, gendered laws. Without this, we risk creating unhelpful inconsistencies in how gendered crimes are dealt with by the justice system. It would, for example, leave it up to judges to determine whether an individual case of sexual assault or stalking meets the threshold for a sex-aggravated hate crime when in reality, these crimes against women are always inherently gendered forms of violence.  

We worked with the Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group led by Baroness Kennedy, to advocate for a thorough examination of how the justice system should respond to misogynistic violence and harm. We joined experts in law, social work and human rights to take the necessary time to grapple with the expansive question of how the law can be used to interrupt misogynistic attitudes and behaviours. The report can be found here. The Scottish Government subsequently launched the Misogyny Law Consultation, our response to which can be found here, published June 2023. 

In 2022 the Scottish Government committed to introducing detailed legislation to improve protections for women before the end of this parliament.  

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