Policing Online Hate

The internet has made the navigation of our lives simple but has also provided new spaces in which crime can occur. Policing of these cyberspaces is fraught with challenges, requiring police forces to adapt to policing a global digital world. This chapter looks at the challenges of policing online gendered hate from the perspective of women who have experienced these acts. Participants have been reluctant to report to the police, anticipating that the police would be unable or unwilling to investigate. The chapter argues that recognition of gender as a strand of hate crime victimisation by the United Kingdom criminal justice system would improve the policing of this form of online abuse, while the development of transnational policing policies in the area of hate crime would be boosted by the instigation of more police co-operation at the local level