Sex doesn’t matter?

In this paper, I seek to highlight and re-emphasise the ongoing problem of the disconnection between the terms ‘hate’ and linguistic violence against women. Despite the prevalence of violent, misogynistic and sexist actions against women, it was only in 2016 that police forces saw fit to categorise these actions as ‘hate’, and only then in one police force (Nottinghamshire Police) with one forward thinking (female) Chief Constable working in partnership with Nottingham Women’s Centre. As such, I seek here to look in more depth at the disconnection between hate and crimes according to sex – particularly with regard to hate speech, and to unpick some of the reasons behind this, and the problems with failing to acknowledge such matters within law and social policy.