Pathologising the victim: law and the construction of people with disabilities as victims of crime in Ireland

Abstract

Victimologists have for many years explored the construction of identities associated with the ‘victim of crime’, and how certain groups in society are understood as more ‘deserving’ of victim status than others. This paper considers the victim subjectivities ascribed to people with disabilities¹

¹ In Ireland, ‘people with disabilities’ is the preferred term to ‘disabled people’.

as victims of crime in Ireland by exploring the legal frameworks that shape their encounters with the criminal justice system. The legislative bricolage that exists is shaped by disjuncture, whereby anti-discrimination measures grounded in people with disabilities’ equal rights to access the justice system sit alongside those that construct them in terms of incapacity. Criminal law overwhelmingly pathologises people with disabilities as crime victims, with impairment dominating their victim status. The paper suggests that notions of victimhood that associate people with disabilities with dependency and passivity will do little to raise awareness of the disabling barriers that characterise their encounters with the criminal justice system.

Keywords:

• people with disabilities
• crime victims
• law
• Ireland
• criminal justice system

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks to colleagues Shane Kilcommins and Gillian Harold for their work on the project on which the paper is based, and the National Disability Authority for funding the research. The author would also like to acknowledge the helpful comments of the two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

¹ In Ireland, ‘people with disabilities’ is the preferred term to ‘disabled people’.

1. In Ireland, ‘people with disabilities’ is the preferred term to ‘disabled people’.

2. The Gardaí is Ireland’s police force.

3. Although there has been some differentiation between impairment groups in this regard, and it can be argued that not all groups wish to draw on the label of ‘disability’ as a basis for stating their claims (e.g. members of the Deaf community in Ireland, whilst rejecting any notion of their Deafmess as a disability, have gained accommodations such as interpreter services in courtrooms).

4. The Oireachtas is Ireland’s national parliament.

5. The Health Service Executive is the statutory body in Ireland commissioning and providing health and social care services.

6. The definition of disability used in the Disability Act 2005 is: ‘“disability”, in relation to a person, means a substantial restriction in the capacity of the person to carry on a profession, business or occupation in the State or to participate in social or cultural life in the State by reason of an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairment’. It should be noted that this definition has also been heavily criticised by disability organisations in Ireland for its medicalised and restrictive nature.