Treating Male Violence against Women and Girls as Hate in Canada

Some incidents of male violence against women and girls (MVAWG) could be recognized as sex-motivated hate crimes. Often, however, crimes of male violence are neither treated as hate crimes nor reported as sex-motivated. This article examines sex-motivated hate, and the violence that results from sex-motivated hate in Canada, to explore its absolute and relative visibility. Sex is included as a targeted social group in hate crime laws in Canada. We consider whether and how sex is reflected in crime reporting data, sentencing, and public discourse. We demonstrate that violence motivated by sex is rarely identified as hate crime by legal actors tasked with enforcing and implementing criminal offence and sentencing provisions. We conclude by providing steps that could be taken to ensure sex-motivated hate, including sex-motivated violence, is recognized as a form of hate like other more commonly recognized targeted groups going forward.