This week, Nottingham Women’s Centre and Nottinghamshire Police held an event to share some of the outcomes of their much-discussed new policy of recording misogyny as a hate crime. The event was packed with 150 attendees, including representatives from 16 police forces across the UK – testament to the huge interest surrounding the scheme and the appetite to consider rolling it out further afield.

Sue Fish, chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police, and Melanie Jeffs, manager of the Nottingham Women’s Centre, shared some early results, as well as highlighting the valuable lessons learned about the problem itself and the best practice for tackling it. Here are some of the insights they revealed.

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Women aren’t clamouring to report wolf-whistles

Contrary to some rather reactionary early headlines, the decision to record misogyny as a hate crime did not lead to a frenzy of women calling for men to be locked up for a single wolf-whistle. In reality, the 30 misogynistic hate crimes recorded by police since the new category was introduced ranged from public order offences to physical assault, indecent assault and even kidnapping. Nor were the police inundated with thousands of reports. “Sadly,” Fish explained, “as with so much hate crime, we only get the tip of the iceberg reported to us.”

Serious crimes are seen as ‘normal’ and so go unreported

Recording misogyny as a hate crime doesn’t change what is already a crime under UK law, but it does seem to have a major impact on women’s perceptions of what they can report. A YouGov poll in March this year revealed that more than a third of women had experienced “unwanted sexual touching” in public spaces, but many feel unable to report such experiences.

Nottingham women whose video testimonies were played at the event said the new hate crime category gave them confidence the problem was finally being taken seriously. Many might not have come forward before, even to report a serious offence, because it is so normalised. One woman initially told Jeffs: “There must be a different number to call [than the standard police numbers], because this isn’t a crime.”

The problem is intersectional

Many of those local women’s experiences revealed the intersection of misogyny with other forms of prejudice, notably Islamophobia, with one woman being told by a man in the street that she’d look much better “without that thing on your head”. The crimes recorded by the police during the initial reporting period also revealed these intersections; they included women’s experiences of “racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress”.

The backlash is brutal (and proves the importance of the work)

Intense international media coverage of the new policy came as something of a surprise, with headlines from as far afield as China, the Middle East and the US, including some more colourful than others. (“British county names street harassment a hate crime in tough blow to local perverts.”) But while they had expected some negative responses, nothing prepared the women who spearheaded the initiative for the deluge of social media abuse, ironically, from those angered by the idea that misogyny should be considered a hate crime.

Fish advised that any similar future work should include built-in strategies from the beginning to provide support in dealing with online abuse.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest All frontline staff need training to help deal with reports of harassment. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Thorough training is vital

Any successful scheme must acknowledge the negative experiences many, in particular black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women and LGBTQ people, have had with reporting to the police. This comes on top of the societal normalisation that makes many reluctant to report sexual harassment for fear of being mocked, dismissed or disbelieved. Women “thought they’d be laughed at when they phoned up to report”, said Fish. So training for all frontline staff, from despatch operators to responding officers, is vital before any public-facing work begins, in order to guarantee a respectful, appropriate response to every report.

Community co-operation is vital

A key feature of Nottingham’s approach was close collaboration between the police and the local women’s centre. This also facilitated the provision of support to victims after they had come forward. Jeffs spoke of the cooperation that had been fostered with local communities, schools, churches, mosques and other organisations such as mental health charities. In order to be successful, she said, a whole-community approach is important.

Ultimately she stressed that the aim is to change attitudes, challenge the normalisation of misogynistic abuse, and enable women to move freely around their city without being intimidated, abused or harassed. “You can’t measure the success of this by the number of calls, but by the number of women who’ve said they feel like they’re walking taller – just to know it’s there.”

Finally, the work can’t simply be a one-off push – it must be sustainable and ongoing. As Fish said: “It’s not a pilot or an initiative or a trial. We’ve listened to women and we’re doing it.”