Disability hate crime

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Disability hate crime is a form of hate crime involving the use of violence against people with disabilities. This is not only violence in a physical sense, but also includes other hostile acts, such as the repeated blocking of disabled access^[1] and verbal abuse.^[1] These hate crimes are associated with prejudice against a disability, or a denial of equal rights for disabled people (as this is a form of prejudice). It is viewed politically as an extreme form of ableism, or disablism.^[2] This phenomenon can take many forms, from verbal abuse and intimidatory behaviour to vandalism, assault, or even murder. Although data are limited^[3] studies appear to show that verbal abuse and harassment are the most common.^[4] Disability hate crimes may take the form of one-off incidents, or may represent systematic abuse which continues over periods of weeks, months, or even years. Disabled parking places, wheelchair access areas and other facilities are frequently a locus for disability hate. Instead of seeing access areas as essential for equity, they are seen instead as 'special treatment', unjustifiable by status, and so a 'reason' for acting aggressively.^[5] Denial of access thus demonstrates a prejudice against equal rights for disabled people; such actions risk actual bodily harm as well as limiting personal freedom.

The people who commit disability hate crimes frequently justify their actions with narratives driven by socio-economic factors which can follow a typical pattern. For example, people commit these crimes because they view disabled people as: making 'inconvenient' or 'insolent' demands for physical barriers (e.g. parked cars, commercial signage) to be removed; 'falsely' portraying their disabilities to receive welfare support ("scroungers"); being undeserving of equal access / treatment; having lower status and therefore being "easy targets" for aggressive acts.^[5]

Another factor is ignorance of the very basic tenets of variable and/or invisible disabilities. People can fail to acknowledge that seeing an action risked once is no indicator of whether the disabled person can do it safely, repeatedly, without extreme pain, without consequence^[6] or predictably at any other time. Low awareness of the medical need for ambulatory wheelchair use - such as fatigue collapse over medium distance; difficulties with prolonged standing as opposed to walking; balance or cardiac issues - can also be a factor.^[7]

Disability hate crime can occur in any situation and with any individual. Incidents may occur between strangers who have never met, between acquaintances, or within the family. The two key requirements for an act to be called a "disability hate crime" are that it is perceived to be motivated in part or whole by prejudice against someone because of disability (denial of equal rights being a form of prejudice); and second, that the act is actually a crime,^[8] which includes repeated access blocking.^[1] Multiple hate incidents - which do not involve a criminal offence per se - can also constitute a disability hate crime if there are enough of them. This is because repeated harassment is a criminal offence.