ABSTRACT
The 2012 London Paralympic Games were the subject of widespread media coverage and intense speculation about how sport might act as a catalyst for engendering positive perceptions of disability in the UK (and beyond). Polls undertaken since September 2012 indicate that, for disabled people, some of this initial optimism may have been misguided (Marsh, 2012; Mencap, 2012). Worse still, research suggests that hostile, and sometimes violent, behaviour towards disabled people in the UK remains depressingly commonplace. Whilst it would be wrong to suggest we know nothing about the motivations, attitudes and ‘crime scripts’ (Cornish, 1984) of those committing such insidious expressions of hostility, harassment and violence, what is patently missing is a cohesive, nuanced body of research with offenders themselves. This chapter seeks to revisit what we do know – and what we think we know – whilst simultaneously suggesting ways forward to better understand the perpetrators of so-called ‘Disability Hate Crime’ (DHC), including a discussion of a recently commissioned pilot study of research with DHC offenders designed by these authors.
