Misogyny online: extending the boundaries of hate crime

Abstract

GBV has generated interventions from activists and scholars throughout Europe and beyond. As a newly emerging form of GBV, online abuse has to date generated fewer interventions and conceptual discussions. The article argues that this is partly because this is an emerging issue but also because it poses distinct challenges because it has no national boundaries and because it challenges traditional notions of public and private space. Drawing on survey and interview data with women abused online further to participation in feminist activism, the paper develops debates about responses to misogynistic abuse. The paper considers whether online misogynistic abuse is a form of hate crime. Using existing literature, three dimensions of hate crime are identified: the nature of motivation, exclusionary intent, and spatial context. In respect of each, the findings presented here suggest that this abuse could be a form of hate crime. There are difficulties in respect of each, and anomalies are identified. However, these are of no greater magnitude than those which apply more widely to other forms of hate crime.