What is Disability Hate Crime?: A Historical Exploration of Crimes Involving Disabled People
A Seminar Presentation by Dr. Alex Tankard
Hosted by the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies, Faculty of Education, Liverpool Hope University
Time: 2.15pm - 3.45pm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th 2010
The 2007 CPS Policy for Prosecuting cases of Disability Hate Crime states that ‘It is important to make a distinction between a disability hate crime and a crime committed against a disabled person because of his/her perceived vulnerability’ (9).
Under the social model of disability, is this distinction helpful, harmful, or simply meaningless? What is the difference between assaulting a disabled person while making ‘a derogatory or insulting comment about disabled people’ (8), and assaulting a disabled person because social structures and cultural representations have led you to believe that they cannot defend themselves or obtain justice? Should the first be regarded as a politicised crime, and the second as politically neutral?
In 1884, in the Wild West mining camp of Leadville, Colorado, a disabled man shot a nondisabled man and then pleaded self-defence. The details of this obscure and complex case meet none of the criteria outlined by the 2007 Policy, and yet the disabled participant and contemporary press reportage exposed aspects of the judicial system that marginalised and discriminated against citizens with physical impairments.
In this seminar, Dr. Tankard will use the 1884 incident to ask whether the 2007 Policy’s determination to distinguish between ‘hate crimes’ and crimes committed against vulnerable people perpetuates confusion about the real causes and meanings of disability. Dr. Tankard will argue that the most insidious and intractable social injustice may be found not in the open ‘hostility’ and name-calling classed as hate crime, but in the social structures that disable people who have impairments and render them appealing targets for crime of any kind. Ultimately, she will ask whether the CPS’s decision to politicise one set of crimes while depoliticising others illustrates the continuing failure of official and public discourses to comprehend truly the social model of disability.
The CCDS Research Forum is free of charge, but attendees are required to register by sending an email to Heather Barker <[log in to unmask]>, using “Alex Tankard” as the subject line.
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