Post by papamihel on Jan 20, 2022 6:08:48 GMT
The U.K.’s House of Lords voted Monday night to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales, in one of a series of defeats handed down by peers to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government.
Categorizing misogyny as a hate crime passed the house by 242 to 185 votes. The bill will return to the House of Commons for MPs to have their say.
Conservative peer Baroness Newlove drove the move to amend the bill to make misogyny a hate crime — in the face of opposition from her party colleagues.
“Too often when it comes to violence against women, society demands the perfect victim before we act,” she said. “As a society, we have rightly taken steps to acknowledge the severity of racist or homophobic crimes, but have not yet acted on crimes driven by hatred of women.”
Johnson himself had rejected the motion to make misogyny a hate crime back in October 2021, stating that police should instead focus on “very real crimes.”
Once misogyny becomes a hate crime, judges would have scope to impose stronger penalties if prejudice against women is proved to be the motivation. It would also require the police to record whether crimes were motivated by a hatred of someone’s sex or gender.
Categorizing misogyny as a hate crime passed the house by 242 to 185 votes. The bill will return to the House of Commons for MPs to have their say.
Conservative peer Baroness Newlove drove the move to amend the bill to make misogyny a hate crime — in the face of opposition from her party colleagues.
“Too often when it comes to violence against women, society demands the perfect victim before we act,” she said. “As a society, we have rightly taken steps to acknowledge the severity of racist or homophobic crimes, but have not yet acted on crimes driven by hatred of women.”
Johnson himself had rejected the motion to make misogyny a hate crime back in October 2021, stating that police should instead focus on “very real crimes.”
Once misogyny becomes a hate crime, judges would have scope to impose stronger penalties if prejudice against women is proved to be the motivation. It would also require the police to record whether crimes were motivated by a hatred of someone’s sex or gender.
I wonder how well the law is going to be defined. Because misogyny is a bit of a vague term... Legally, I mean.
