Violence and disablist hate crime against people with intellectual disabilities: Czech NGOs and service providers’ experiences

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between intellectual disabilities and violent victimization, its reporting, and perceived priority in victim needs in criminal proceedings using data from a survey conducted among Czech organizations working with disabled people. The main aim is to find out whether there are differences between the organizations based on the type of disabilities they focus on. Pearson’s chi-squared, Fisher’s exact test and z-test were applied to determine the statistical differences. The results reveal that the organizations mainly focusing on people with intellectual disabilities reported more experiences with violent victimization, less experiences with reporting the most recent incident of disablist hate crime to police and emphasized more often the need for accompaniment and support during the filing of a crime report and taking other steps in criminal proceedings. The findings imply the need for more research and better targeted assistance for people with intellectual disabilities.

Points of interest

• This study adds to the still-limited knowledge on violent victimization and its reporting in people with intellectual disabilities, focusing on the under-explored context of East-Central Europe.

• People with intellectual disabilities are at risk of becoming victims of violence and facing barriers in the criminal justice system.

• Organizations working with people with intellectual disabilities reported more experiences with violence and disablist hate crime than other organizations.

• Employees of organizations working with people with intellectual disabilities encountered more violence against themselves or their colleagues because of their activities on behalf of disabled people.

• Organizations that mainly target people with intellectual disabilities reported lower rates of reporting of the most recent incident of disablist hate crime.

• Organizations that mainly target people with intellectual disabilities saw as more pressing the need to accompany and support people with disabilities in criminal proceedings.

Keywords:

• Violence
• violent victimization
• disablist hate crime
• intellectual disabilities
• social service providers
• reporting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund Project ‘Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World’ [Grant No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734].