Recent events have made it impossible to ignore the institutional misogyny and sexism in the London Metropolitan Police Force (‘the Met’). For example:

• The kidnapping and murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by Wayne Couzens, an elite serving police officer.
• The strip search of Child Q, a Black child, at school by Met officers.
• Revelations about the misogyny, homophobia and racism at Charing Cross Police Station.
• The IOPC report that found misogyny and sexism are rampant across the Met and that officers openly boast of ‘having sex’ with women they arrest.
• The conviction of David Carrick, another elite and long-serving Met officer, for 85 serious offences against women over 17 years. The Met knew of the allegations yet repeatedly failed to act on them.

Far from protecting women, it is now clear that a culture of misogyny, sexual harassment, sexism, racism and discrimination is deeply embedded within the Met. The situation is so serious, that commentators are calling for the entire force to be scrapped and started again from scratch.

These problems are not confined to London, however. An independent report published in November 2022 looked at eight separate police forces and concluded that “a culture of misogyny, sexism, predatory behaviour towards female police officers and staff and members of the public” was prevalent in all the forces inspected. They found:

• Police officers made unwarranted stops of women in public places.
• Crimes such as sexual assault were covered up and ignored.
• Widespread harassment of female officers and members of the public.

Every single female police officer and staff member the inspectors spoke to reported being harassed, and sometimes also assaulted, by their male police colleagues.

These attitudes and behaviours do not exist within a vacuum but rather are part of the wider culture that is becoming increasingly misogynistic and sexist through easy access to pornography, the seepage of porn into mainstream culture, and the trivialisation, normalisation and increase in size of the sexual exploitation industry in all its forms – from pornography, through lap dancing and webcamming, right up to prostitution, escorting and ‘sugar dating’.

Most mainstream online pornography depicts violence and aggression, often extreme, directed at women and girls. Suzzan Blac spent several years researching free-to-view porn on Pornhub. She describes seeing women being sexually and violently abused, humiliated, degraded, raped and tortured, and concludes that, “These are not sex videos. They are crime-scene videos.”

Even when the pornography is not explicitly violent, it invariably presents women and girls as objects for men’s sexual use, and it normalises and eroticises the kind of misogynistic, racist and sexist behaviour that now dominates the culture at the Met and other UK police forces. Sex buying also positions women as sexual objects for men’s use – to be bought and sold by men for men’s sexual use and abuse.

History has shown that when a group of people is dehumanised and objectified, treating them with contempt becomes second nature. When this is actively or passively accepted by authorities, violence against that group becomes inevitable.

There is now unequivocal evidence that porn consumption and buying sex are associated with a decrease in empathy and an increase in attitudes that underlie men’s verbal and physical aggression towards women, including rape and sexual harassment. 

In a 2012 study of men who buy sex, one man said: “Men pay for women because he can have whatever and whoever he wants. Lots of men go to prostitutes so they can do things to them that real women would not put up with.” (Notice he doesn’t consider the women involved in prostitution to be “real women”.) Nearly half of the men interviewed clearly agreed with this because they said they believed that once they had paid, they were entitled to do whatever they wanted to her – regardless of what she wanted. And once you get used to treating women as not “real women” in one situation, you’re likely to start treating women disrespectfully in other situations too.

It is no surprise therefore that both Wayne Couzens and David Carrick were self-confessed avid porn users, that the crimes they committed were straight out of a mainstream porn scene, and that Wayne Couzens boasted to his Met colleagues about using women in prostitution.

It is simply inconceivable that the misogynistic and sexist culture within the Met and other UK police forces will change while police officers have virtual impunity to watch porn, engage in porn-style banter, and pay to sexually use and abuse women in prostitution.

Last year the British military introduced a complete ban on personnel paying prostitutes for sex while stationed abroad. We believe it should extend to the armed forces stationed at home, but at least it is a start.

When interviewed about the ban, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace made it clear that a key motivation was the need to attract more women into the military and to improve their working environment. He asked what it says to the women in the forces when their male colleagues come back from a night out and talk about their exploits in the brothels.

We believe it is high time that such a ban is introduced in the British police, and should apply to all staff. In particular, it should:

• Ban paying or attempting to pay for prostitution, lap-dancing or any other ‘sexual service’ at any time, whether on- or off-duty.
• Ban the personal use and consumption of porn while on duty or using police equipment or IT networks.
• Ban superior officers engaging in sexual activity with subordinates.
• Ban personnel engaging in sexual activity with victims, informants, suspects and people under arrest.
• Ban the use of the sexist and derogatory language associated with porn and prostitution (such as tart, whore, slut, slapper, slag, ho, etc.)

To be effective, the ban must be clearly and effectively implemented and violations must lead to disciplinary action, including termination of employment. It must also be accompanied by mandatory, high-quality training that explains the damage that porn, prostitution and the entire sexual exploitation industry cause to women and children, and society as a whole.

Only by implementing such a ban as an integral part of a systematic overhaul of police culture is there any hope the police will be able to properly maintain law and order, and maintain the respect of those they are tasked to protect.

Further reading

• What’s Wrong with Prostitution?
• “As long as porn exists, we don’t stand a chance of creating a fair and equal world”
• What are we talking about when we talk of the sex industry?

About the image: The image is a photo taken at the vigil held on Clapham Common on 13 March 2021 in response to the kidnapping and murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met police officer, Wayne Couzens. The Met had refused permission for the vigil to go ahead, for which they were later criticised in the High Court for breaching the human rights of the organisers, but the vigil went ahead as an unofficial event. Even though it was peaceful, the police were heavy-handed, arresting a number of women for peacefully attending the vigil.

Supporting organisations

• Manchester Feminist Network (UK)
• Men At Work CIC (UK)
• Older Feminist Network (UK)
• Fondation Scelles (France)
• SISTERS e.V. (Germany)
• Society Ključ (Slovenia)
• Swedish Women’s Lobby (Sweden)
• CAAGe

If you would like to add your organisation to this list and have the authority to do so, please email us on nordicmodelnow@gmail.com.