disability hate crimes surged in 2013

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2013/11/26/disability-hate-crimes-surge/18921/

Nearly twice as many hate crimes targeting people with disabilities were reported last year, the FBI says, even as the total number of hate crimes nationwide fell.

Statistics released Monday from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program indicate that there were 102 hate crime offenses reported in 2012 based on disability bias. That’s up from 58 the year prior.

The increase in disability-related cases comes as the total number of hate crimes declined, the FBI said.

Overall, 5,796 criminal incidents reported last year were motivated by a bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin or disability. In 2011, there were 6,222 cases.

Disability bias accounted for 1.6 percent of all hate crimes reported in 2012. The FBI said that 82 of the incidents were related to mental disability and 20 were related to physical disability.

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the guardian has some interesting insights on this. do keep in mind that this is a different country, also published a couple years back.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/16/disabled-hate-crime-government-benefits

There is little doubt that disability hate crime is on the rise. A recent Equality and Human Rights Commission report concluded that "people with disabilities in the UK face harassment, insult and attack almost as a matter of routine, while a collective denial' among police, government and other public bodies means little is done to challenge the situation".

This is strong language. It seems so shocking that we might decide that it cannot possibly be true. Turn then to the Mencap study that found police were consistently failing the victims of disability hate crime, or to the Scope report that concluded that "widespread casual and institutional disablism in Britain creates the conditions where disability hate crime can flourish without being recognised or challenged".

**SNIP**


indeed it is hard not to blame our current political climate. I am disabled, and am regularly sneered at by hospital secretaries for not being employed; doctors aren't terribly supportive either, but they're smart enough to hide it well. surely it wasn't always so bad?