Swedish Women’s Experiences of Misogynistic Hate Crimes: The Impact of Victimization on Fear of Crime

• DOI: 10.1177/1557085120957731
• Author: Mika Hagerlid
• Date: 01 October 2021
• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

2021, Vol. 16(4) 504 –525

https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085120957731

Feminist Criminology

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/1557085120957731

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Article

Swedish Women’s

Experiences of Misogynistic

Hate Crimes: The Impact

of Victimization on Fear

of Crime

Mika Hagerlid1

Abstract

The overall aim of this study is to fill a knowledge gap regarding misogynistic

hate crimes, since only one previous study has focused on victims’ experiences.

Drawing from a sample of 1,767 female students, the results show that women with

experiences of misogynistic hate crimes are more likely to be subjected to sexual

harassment, repeat victimization, and to have been targeted by strangers. They

consistently report higher levels of fear of crime by comparison with both non-bias

victims and non-victims. Finally, the results support the thesis that misogynistic hate

crime, like other forms of hate crime, has a message effect.

Keywords

victimization, hate crime, misogyny, policing, fear of crime

Introduction

It is well established that women fear crime more than men (Collins, 2016; Hale, 1996;

Henson & Reyns, 2015; Madriz, 1997; Stanko, 1995; Warr, 1984). Hate crime scholars

have argued that this heightened fear is in part the result of misogynistic hate crimes,

defined in this study as crimes that target women due to their gender, either based on

prejudice or hatred against women as a group or based on the perception of women as

easy and defenseless targets (Bespinar & Canel-Cinarbas, 2017; Mason-Bish, 2015;

McPhail, 2003; Perry, 2001).

1Malmö University, Sweden

Corresponding Author:

Mika Hagerlid, Department of Criminology, Malmö University, Jan Waldenströms gata 25, 214 28 Malmö,

Sweden.

Email: mika.hagerlid@mau.se

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Hate crimes are known to have a more pronounced impact on victims, with victims

reporting higher rates of anxiety, stress, depression and fear by comparison with non-

bias victims (Herek et al., 1999; McDevitt et al., 2001; Pezzella & Fetzer, 2017).

Further, hate crimes have a negative effect that extends far beyond the direct victim,

since the offenses spread fear and insecurity within entire minority communities and

contribute to the marginalisation of particularly vulnerable groups (Bell & Perry,

2014; Iganski, 2001; Noelle, 2002; Paterson et al., 2019; Perry & Alvi, 2011). Hate

crimes are therefore often referred to as message crimes.

The issue of including sex or gender as categories in hate crime legislation has been

controversial, largely due to a lack of knowledge about misogynistic hate crime. Only

one previous study has focused on the victims’ experiences (Mason-Bish & Duggan,

2019). The results show that sexual offences are common and that there is a height-

ened risk among young women and among those with an androgynous or transgender

identity.

Drawing on the data from a mixed method study of Swedish university students,

the overall aim of this study is to fill a knowledge gap regarding victimization patterns,

the victims’ fear of crime, and the message effect of misogynistic hate crime. The

study provides more in-depth knowledge about victimization among the risk groups

identified by Mason-Bish & Duggan (2019), since this study includes both cis- and

trans women at a sensitive stage of life characterized by high victimization rates. The

study contributes to the literature by shedding light on the question of whether the

impact on victims is in line with research on hate crime based on other motives, that

is, whether the impact is more pronounced by comparison with non-bias crime and

whether there is a message effect. Since uninformed conceptions about whether

misogynistic hate crime fits into the hate crime paradigm have an impact on hate crime

legislation in Sweden and other countries, the study makes an important contribution

to the field by examining these questions more closely.

Background

Women’s Fear of Crime and Victimization

In their research review on fear of crime, Henson and Reyns describe gender as “Quite

possibly the strongest and most widely-accepted predictor of fear of crime” (Henson

& Reyns, 2015, p. 95). Women’s fear has been found to be relatively stable over time,

and consistently higher in comparison to men (Haynie, 1998; NTU, 2019). A recent

meta study based on 114 studies identified gender as the strongest predictor of fear of

crime, followed by own experiences of victimization (Collins, 2016). Furthermore,

researchers have shown that women’s fear of crime increases with threatening and

intimidating interactions with male partners and male strangers. This means that fear

is also affected by threatening acts that might not necessarily be illegal (Scott, 2003;

Stanko, 1995).

It has been argued that it is women’s fear of sexual assault and rape that increases

their fear of other forms of interpersonal crime, since they are perceived to be