In what ways is disablist hate crime similar to, but also different from, other types of hate crime?
As defined by (The Equality Act, 2010) an individual is said to be disabled when they possess physical or mental impairments which affects their ability to perform normal daily functions. Experts in this field of knowledge describe the discrimination that disabled people face as “disablism” and it happens through stereotypical behaviors which is reproduced by religion, the media and even by family (Goodley, 2014). Therefore, the term disablist hate crime draws focus on the impairments of the disabled individuals and their victimization which is fueled by the prejudices and biases views held by the perpetrators of this type of hate crime (Iganski,…show more content… The main factor which differentiates disablist hate crime from all the rest is that it is by far the most unrecognized form of hate crime that there is while all of the other stands are swimming in public attention and the media (Sherry, 2010). To understand why this is the case, the various cases of disablist hate crime are committed by both known and unfamiliar perpetrators, however in a scenario that involves someone who is known to the victim that is abusing them – there exists a “bond” between victim and offender (Chakraborti & Garland, 2009 ). This phenomenon may lead to complications when the prosecution process takes place as it would be a lot harder to identify this type of crime as a ‘hate’ crime when the relationship between offender and victim may at times be neighbors, friends or even family who are generally viewed as ‘loved ones’ (Sin, et al., 2012). To explain this major difference even further, disablist hate crime appears to involve more “mate crime” incidence when compared to the other strands due to the nature of the type of victims involved in disablist crime. The term “mate crime” in this particular context can be explained to be when an offender grooms their victim into being friends with them in order to establish a dependent bond before they start to abuse their victims either physically or emotionally (Thomas, 2011). The reason why this happens most frequently with disabled individuals is because those who possess learning difficulties and other cognitive illnesses are viewed to be easy targets, this is because they are thought to be distant from family and friends and other people who may care about them which would leave them craving for a desire to form new bonds and to be in relationships with anyone who is willing to communicate with them (Thomas, 2011). Sadly, individuals with
