Wednesday 22 February 2012
Trailblazers launch disability hate crime report
Young disabled people are failing to report threatening behaviour and verbal and physical abuse in public due to a fear that these crimes will not be taken seriously, Trailblazers campaigners have warned today.
Trailblazers are urging police authorities to review their handling of disability-motivated hate crime, as a new report, Under Investigation, launches today showing that up to 80 per cent of young disabled people believe that the police do not take disability harassment and hate crime seriously enough.
The Trailblazers survey reveals that:
- two out of three young disabled people have been taunted or verbally abused because they are disabled
- 62 percent of young disabled people say they have been or may have been the victim of disability hate crime
- only four out of ten young disabled people who completed the survey and have been harassed or abused, have reported the incident to a person in authority
- eight out of ten young disabled people who completed the survey think the police do not take disability hate crime seriously enough.
Trailblazers told of reluctance to report incidents of verbal abuse, spitting and confrontational behaviour, due to the belief that their local police force would fail to take action or that the incident was not ‘significant enough' to warrant police time.
Trailblazers is now calling for a nationwide initiative between forces to crack down on disability-motivated crime by building links with local disabled groups, providing alternative ways for reporting abuse, and reviewing approaches to recording and tackling incidents.
Read more about the report on the Trailblazers website.
For further information about the report, please get in touch:
020 7803 4807
campaigns@muscular-dystrophy.org
