[web_stories title="false" excerpt="false" author="false" date="false" archive_link="true" archive_link_label="" circle_size="150" sharp_corners="false" image_alignment="left" number_of_columns="1" number_of_stories="5" order="DESC" orderby="post_title" view="circles" /]
After studies showed that victims frequently didn’t recognize it as a crime, Frome-based nonprofit OpenStoryTellers made a series of movies to raise awareness.
“Mate crime,” in which a victim is befriended by someone who goes on to abuse or uses them, was also included as a risk factor for individuals with disabilities.
The police force in Avon and Somerset, England, reported 473 incidents of disability-related hate crime between April 2021 and March 2022 but acknowledged that the actual number was likely far higher due to underreporting.
The founder of OpenStoryTellers, Charlotte Woodall, said on BBC Radio Somerset, “Some of our members didn’t know that much about hate crime and disability hate crime, and we conducted a lot of research with our members to find out what people did know.”
The organization proclaimed its expectation that those with cognitive or physical impairments would benefit from the campaign.
“Quite frequently individuals are targeted, and they are victims, and they do nothing about it – perhaps because they are afraid, potentially because they believe ‘oh, nothing is going to happen anyhow,’ or possibly because they don’t recognize it as a genuine crime,” she added. Read more: Walker Mortuaries in Spanish Fork
Ben Harris, a resident of Frome who suffers from both hearing and visual impairments, recounted an event in which he was tossed a drink from a moving automobile.
He claimed, “I was able to brush it off, but it did make me upset,” adding that he had not thought to report it at the time.
Support worker, Ali Gunn from the south London organization United Response, which helps those with learning disabilities, said, “The experience of ‘is this a hate crime?’ is something that we hear fairly regularly.”
Data just revealed that the number of hate crimes in England and Wales increased by 41% between 2021 and 2022.
Ms. Gunn speculated that this might mean one of two things: “either reporting processes have got better, individuals are more aware of how and when to report a hate crime,” or “hate crime is on the rise. Read also: Relation Of Ross Smith and Steph Pappas Broke Up: Is It True?
When new content is added to unitedfact.com, subscribers will be notified automatically. We recommend subscribing to our updates if you appreciate reading articles similar to the one you are currently browsing.
