Disabled young ‘nearly twice as likely to be crime victims as other children’

By The Press Association6th September 2016News EnglandChild Protection, Courts / Justice, Disabilities, Inequalities, News England

Disabled children are almost twice as likely to fall victim to crime as other youngsters, a new report warns.

Research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that 22% of disabled 10 to 15-year-olds in England and Wales had experienced an offence in the previous 12 months.

This compared with 12% of non-disabled youngsters of the same age, according to the watchdog’s analysis of data for 2012/13 and 2013/14.

The findings were described as a “wake-up call” by commission chairman David Isaac.

He said: “This report asks us to face some hard truths. After the huge success of the Paralympic Games, young disabled people were looking forward to a far brighter future than any previous generation.

“We cannot hope to create a more inclusive society for future generations while disabled children continue to live in a climate of fear of victimisation.”

In England and Wales, more disabled than non-disabled people in every age group had experienced any crime in the previous 12 months, according to the study.

Similarly, in Scotland more disabled people than non-disabled people aged 16-44 or 65-74 had experienced any crime in the year before.

The report said experience of crime was also higher for those with mental health conditions such as depression, or social or behavioural impairments such as autism, attention deficit disorder or Asperger’s syndrome.

Mr Isaac said: “People with mental illnesses and social or behavioural impairments experience some of the greatest misunderstanding and mistrust in society.

“What our research today confirms is that, in contrast to the commonly held prejudice linking criminality to poor mental health, people with mental illnesses are in fact more likely than average to be a victim of a crime.”

Disabled adults in England and Wales experienced approximately 56,000 incidents of disability hate crime a year during the period from 2011 to 2014, the EHRC found.

Earlier this year it was revealed that prosecutions for hate crimes against disabled people surged by 41.3% in a year.

The overall tally of all hate crime incidents fell compared with figures for 2007/8 and 2009/10, according to the commission’s report.

Ruth Owen, chief executive of charity Whizz-Kidz, said: “There are two reasons that this report is so alarming; first that disabled people are at a greater risk of crime at all, and second that young disabled people fear becoming victims of crime even more than their peers.

“That young disabled people’s lives should be blighted by the fear – and reality – of criminal activity is alarming and distressing.

“This report shines a much-needed light on the reality for many disabled people; we hope that its damning findings lead to a better deal for disabled people who – just like everyone else – deserve a life free from becoming a victim of crime.”

Geoff Heyes, policy and campaigns manager at the charity Mind, welcomed the research, saying: “People with mental health problems still face stigma and discrimination.”