Disability Hate Crime

Published in June 2015, this collection of essays by academic, NGO and policy thinkers from across the UK highlights how making connections between different agendas, sectors and places can help tackle disadvantage and inequality more effectively.

The publication is part of the EDF and EDF Research Network’s wider joint initiative Beyond 2015: Shaping the Future of Equality, Human Rights and Social Justice, consisting of a conference in February 2015, an online portal of resources, and this publication.

As someone who originally started out as a part-time PhD student researching the motivation underlying disability hate crime, before metamorphosing into an independent researcher on the subject (purely through not having the funds to continue with the PhD) the topic has certainly caused me many sleepless nights. Surely, there must be easier and less emotionally demanding topic to research? Certainly, there seems to be a lot of 'hate' about within the UK, although the exact numbers concerning disability are always going to be a complete unknown. That is until all incidents are reported to the police and all incidents are officially recorded. At present, only a small fraction of disability hate crimes are reported to the authorities, although that number is certainly growing. The Economic and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) recently released estimated figures based upon the annual Crime Survey for England and Wales, by which they argue that the number of incidents of disability hate crime affecting adults in England and Wales averaged 56,000 per year during the period 2011-12 to 2013-14. This is actually a reported fall in the estimated number of crimes, down from an average of 77,000 committed per year during the period 2007-08 to 2009-10. However, it might be rather wise to be sceptical of this apparent decrease for the time being, as the period in question is also one where disabled people were reporting that they faced increased abuse, harassment and violence fuelled by the toxic and highly negative political and media rhetoric surrounding disability benefit fraud. Logic therefore dictates that it would be surprising to see such a big decrease in such crimes, given the negative political climate at the time, and particularly when official figures are still increasing dramatically. When I started thinking about the problem in 2010, very few people had even touched upon the area. Therefore, knowing where to begin was difficult in itself, as attempting a literature review in an extremely under-researched area was pretty much akin to looking for a needle in a very large haystack. Certainly, there were a number of UK charities such as Scope and MenCap busily counting the numbers of incidents and the types of actions involved, but very few 'academics' had dared to delve into the real nitty-gritty of the motivation underlying abuse, harassment and violence committed towards disabled people (certainly within the UK). The ones that had been so adventurous, hadn't even begun to scratch the surface. First off, disability hate crime is a unique and highly complex area. After reading transcripts of people's experiences recorded in newspapers and magazines in 2010, it became clear to me that disability hate crimes were just as likely to be committed by somebody known to the victim in some way as they were by complete strangers. This therefore earmarked 'disability' as something particularly unique within the field of 'hate crime' itself. If such acts are being committed not only by strangers, but by friends, partners, relatives, neighbours or an even carers to the victim, then this completely separates disability hate crime out from those equivalent crimes committed towards Race, Ethnicity, Religion or Sexuality. Arguably, this frequent 'familiarity' between victim and perpetrator, meant that disability hate crime was also becoming to be seen within certain sections of the academic world, as well as within the political world, as not only being a less serious form of hate crime compared to racial hatred or anti-Semitism, but something argued as not motivated to any real degree by bias or prejudice at all. At best, a form of nuisance, antisocial behaviour. At worst, a form of 'domestic violence'. Secondly, I started my research in a climate of increasing media hostility as well as political hostility towards disabled people, a climate of highly negative rhetoric that effectively scapegoated all disabled people as being potential layabouts, scroungers or fakers (people faking their disability completely in order to qualify for welfare benefits, or at least, exaggerating their disability). This highly toxic media and political phenomena not only muddied the waters concerning the motives underlying such crimes, but also generally cut off any chance of funding for projects such as mine that attempted to get to the bottom of a very old problem. More than once did I feel that any request for a simple show of support or help from local or national government (and a few disability charities themselves) not only usually

*This is the script that was presented with the conference presentation*

Drawing from my professional, academic and personal experiences of working within disability hate crime, I would like to use my time to highlight a small number of key themes, which will hopefully stimulate discussion for the remainder of the seminar and future conversations. The issues I raise are, from my perspective, paramount and need continual review and reflection if we are to strengthen any nation’s strategy to address disability hate crime.

Drawing from my professional, academic and personal experiences of working within disability hate crime, I would like to use my time to highlight a small number of key themes, which will hopefully stimulate discussion for the remainder of the seminar and future conversations. The issues I raise are, from my perspective, paramount and need continual review and reflection if we are to strengthen any nation’s strategy to address disability hate crime. For any country, we should be in a position to acknowledge and praise the positive steps we have taken to tackle hate crime towards disabled people, but every one of us needs to reflect on what has not worked well and consider the most effective plan of action.

Combatting disability hate crime (DHC) is vital for Independent Living, as it is a barrier for disabled people in accessing their rights to live lives with full participation. The European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) has been active in the area of DHC through different partnerships since 2011. In 2016, the organisation focused on furthering cooperation to advance the issue at the European Union (EU) level. ENIL developed and distributed, as part of its work plan, a survey to explore positive and progressive examples that can be spread for the goal of combatting DHC.

This brief analysis shows the initial findings from the survey responses and will become part of a wider report that is to be disseminated through various European networks and presented to Member States and the European Parliament.

Research suggests that disabled people experience disablist hate speech and verbal abuse on a regular basis. Yet current legislation in England and Wales is limited in its ability to challenge this. This paper considers the limitations of policy, and provides the grounding for developing a broader and more inclusive approach to hate crime legislation. This paper seeks to explore conceptual debates surrounding hate speech by positioning the experiential accounts of disabled people at the forefront. By considering this debate through the stories of disabled people, I suggest a more nuanced and reflective policy framework can be developed, which would be more inclusive of the diversity and complexity of everyday experiences. 
Drawing upon research findings, this paper attempts to forge links between conceptual debates and everyday realities in order to generate a more nuanced understanding of disablist hate speech that is informed by and through experience. I discuss some of the ways that disablist hate speech is understood and experienced. Doing so, I bring to light the complex ways that hate speech ‘harms’ through the internalisation of hateful attitudes. In addition, I recognise the everyday practices of resistance that people employ to challenge hate speech and provide more affirmative counter narratives.

Disability hate crimes are a global problem. They are often violent and hyper-aggressive, with life-changing effects on victims, and they send consistent messages of intolerance and bigotry. This ground-breaking book shows that disability hate crimes do exist, that they have unique characteristics which distinguish them from other hate crimes, and that more effective policies and practices can and must be developed to respond and prevent them.

With particular focus on the UK and USA's contrasting response to this issue, this book will help readers to define hate crimes as well as place them within their wider social context. It discusses the need for legislative recognition and essential improvements on the reporting of incidents and assistance for individual victims of these crimes, as well as the need to address the social exclusion of disabled people and the negative attitudes surrounding their condition.

There is growing concern within the UK around violence against people with disabilities. This paper aims to demonstrate how dwarfs are often targets of violence including, threatening behaviour and verbal abuse, from other members of the public, and how these events are met with little or no response from the criminal justice system. The data used in this paper is taken from ongoing research using semi-structured interviews with dwarfs from across the UK. The findings show that quite often incidents towards dwarfs, which can be classed as a disability hate crime, often affect their use of spaces, with them no longer accessing the space where the violence took place and thus affecting their rights to access spaces within the built environment. The paper explores whether or not the violence towards dwarfs and the lack of response from the authorities is affected by the concept of vulnerability in relation to disability hate crime. Lastly the paper examines how vulnerability is often not taken into account in hate crimes despite dwarfs being a vulnerable target.