Sexism and misogyny in policing

Sexism and misogyny are deeply rooted within society and create a disturbing backdrop which facilitates violence against women and girls (VAWG). In December 2021, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and College of Policing published the Policing violence against women and girls: National framework for delivery. 

Following numerous high profile incidents involving police officers committing abhorrent crimes against women and girls, the framework had a specific action for forces to challenge and address sexism and misogyny within policing. This was in recognition that policing needed to start to rebuild trust with women and girls and the wider public.

Changing ingrained behaviours linked to sexism and misogyny is however very difficult and requires a systemic and concerted effort. To help policing tackle sexism and misogyny, the College has applied a behavioural science approach involving the systematic examination of:

• what sexism and misogyny look like within policing (who is doing what)
• the influences on these behaviours (what is driving behaviours to occur)

Following this in-depth understanding, targeted, multifaceted solutions have been identified which should help to change behaviour in this area. 

The approach taken to this work is underpinned by the behaviour change wheel (Michie and others, 2014). The work followed four steps: 

1. identification and selection of target behaviours
2. the behavioural diagnosis
3. design of the interventions
4. implementation and evaluation

This report provides an overview of the behaviour change process and how steps one to three have been applied to sexism and misogyny within policing. Work is ongoing to develop, implement and evaluate the identified interventions and so an update on step four will be issued in due course.