Gender and Hate Crime Protections

This chapter addresses the socio-legal discussions around recognising gender as a discrete category of hate crime for the purposes of legal protections in England and Wales. The analyses begins with an overview of the relevant research on gender-based violence and violence against women before specifically exploring feminist perspectives to theorising and responding to such harms. The analysis then outlines the legal perimeters of hate crimes in England and Wales, making particular reference to the notion of hate crimes – and their related legal protections – as being ‘symbolic’. In viewing violence against women through a hate crimes framework, the discussion draws on key data and cases which illustrate the overlaps of gendered victimisation with other forms of hate crime. The chapter ends by invoking a range of key feminist theorists alongside which to evaluate the complexities of inclusion.