disability hate crime presentation - 21 september

Disability Hate Crime

Faye Savage – Lived Experience Officer, ecdpFriday 21 September 2012


Disability Hate Crime • ecdp and lived experience• ecdp’s work on disability hate crime • Disability hate crime nationally and locally • What was going wrong? • EHRC report• Essex Police and disability hate crime• Hate crime in 2012• How are people with mental health difficulties

affected by hate crime?


ecdp

• Established in 1995

• 30 FTE staff

• £1.5m turnover

• 100% board are disabled people

• Nearly 2000 members and 4000 service users

• Volunteers


ecdp members• We estimate Essex’s total population of

disabled people to be potentially more than 348,600.

• ecdp’s membership in January 2010 was 1,636 people.

• 21.6% have a learning disability• 6.8% have a long-term health condition• 5.2% have a mental health condition• 61.2% have a physical or sensory impairment


Lived Experience Officer

• Faye Savage - Lived Experience Officer at ecdp since 2010.

• Ensuring lived experience is captured across the organisation.

• Working on the issues which affect disabled people.


What is lived experience?

• Lived experience is formed of the experiences disabled people have in their every day lives.

• Taking a lived experience approach means recognising these experiences and forming a collective voice.


ecdp and disability hate crime

• Disability hate crime is an issue which many our members were concerned about.

• Media attention had been focused on hate crime following some high profile cases.


ecdp and disability hate crime

• First hate crime report (2010) examined disability hate crime in a national context:

- Disability organisations recognised huge problem but generally there was a lack of understanding about the issues

- Hate crime falling through gaps in terms of responsibility.


The national picture• Disability Now launched a Hate Crime

dossier as part of the ‘No hiding place’ campaign.

• It listed over 50 serious crimes which were mostly not viewed as hate crime by the police.


The national picture

• Nacro: disabled people are 4 times more likely to have property stolen with the threat of violence or to be sexually assaulted.

• Scope: 47 times as many race hate crimes prosecuted and 5 times as many homophobic hate crimes prosecuted.


The national picture

• Mencap: 9 of 10 people with learning difficulties had been bullied in the last year. 2 of 3 were bullied on a regular basis.

• Mind: 71% of people with mental distress had been victimised in the last 2 years. 22% had been physically assaulted.


The local picture - 2010

• In 2008-9 a total of 4 disability hate crimes had been recorded in Essex.

• 100% had been prosecuted.


What was going wrong?• Disabled people and agencies involved in

supporting us/addressing hate crime did not know what hate crime was or how to support people.

• Police did not understand disability hate crime/take it seriously.

• Reporting/support inaccessible.• Other services were sporadic and inconsistent

(or non-existent).• Perception of disabled people as naturally

vulnerable. • Systems of support potentially abusive.


USER model

• The ecdp USER model demonstrates the four key areas that need addressing in order to address disability hate crime.

• Based on the national picture and recommendations made by national disability organisations.


USER model

Understanding

Signposting and Support

Education

Reporting

Recommendations focused on Essex, but could be extended or replicated.


USER model• Understanding – there needs to be a greater

understanding of disability hate crime • Signposting and Support – services which signpost

and support disabled people when they are victims of hate crime should be widely available and well coordinated

• Education – to ensure wider change for disabled people, we believe education work should be focused on three particular groups of stakeholders: disabled people themselves, professionals and wider society

• Reporting – we believe stronger processes for reporting will increase the number of investigated and prosecuted cases.


Tackling disability hate crime in Essex• Online survey and focus group

with disabled people in Essex.

– Demonstrated disability hate crime was a big issue locally.

– Issues identified nationally were also apparent in Essex.


Tackling disability hate crime in Essex• Roundtable with a large group of

professionals (police, local authority, education officials, Victim Support, Adult Safeguarding etc)

– Inconsistent procedures to recognise or address hate crime.

– Unaware of other support.


ecdp recommendations

• ecdp published a second disability hate crime report (2011).

• In order to implement USER, ecdp recommended the creation of a Disability Hate Crime Officer, within a user-led organisation.


EHRC: Hidden in Plain Sight

• EHRC published the findings of an inquiry into disability related harassment in September 2011.

• Observed ‘systemic institutional failure to protect disabled people and their families from harassment’.


EHRC: Hidden in Plain Sight • The report presented 10 specific cases of

disability hate crime.

• Examined the wider problems around disability hate crime, observing ‘the cases which reach the courts and media are just the tip of the iceberg, and represent the public face of a deeper social problem’


EHRC recommendations

1. Taking ownership.2. Definitive data.3. Better access to a responsive criminal justice

system.4. Motivations and circumstances of perpetrators. 5. Wider understanding of disabled people and

disability hate crime 6. Approaches to hate crime evaluated and

disseminated. 7. Frontline staff recognise and respond to hate

crime.


Essex Police addressing hate crime• Changed focus from reducing crime to

reducing repeat victimisation; allows hate crime stats to rise and represent the true extent of the problem.

• Appointment of specialist hate crime officers across county.

• Better monitoring of stats. • Training to understand issues.• Working with experts and cross-sector.


The local picture - 2012

• Rise in all hate crimes but particularly good results with disability hate crimes.

• Rise in disability hate crime is 118%.


Hate crime in 2012

• Media reporting a huge rise in disability hate crime.

• Given the statistics still do not represent the picture, we actually welcome the rise.


Hate crime in 2012

• Disabled people are experiencing a rise in hostility due to image of ‘scrounging’?


Hate crime in 2012

• The power of the Paralympics to change perceptions… will this have an impact? How can this be maintained?


• People with mental health difficulties experience particular problems around discrimination and stigma. This can lead to disability hate crime.

• Is this recognised or being addressed?

What about mental health?


Targeted violence and harassment against disabled people

What about mental health?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw3tMPuKSKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw3tMPuKSKc

disability hate crime presentation - 21 september

Spiritual

tackling disability

disability

hate crime

lived experience

local picture

disabled people

disabled people

mental health