UK lottery money to fund research into hate crimes against people with autism

From Your Thanet News in the UK:

Hate crime towards autistic people will be the subject of a new Big Lottery-funded research programme.

Carers, politicians and the police know adults with autism and other learning disabilities do suffer abuse from strangers, but have as yet been unable to determine how big of a problem it is.

However, a new project run by the Tizard Centre at the University of Kent aims to provide a better understanding of the hate crimes and victimisation targeted at such people.

Principal investigator Dr Julie Beadle-Brown – a senior lecturer in learning disability – explained the purpose of the project, which this week received almost £350,000 from the Big Lottery Research Programme.

She said: “It’s partly down to the fact that we have spent the past 30 years moving people out of institutions and into the community, allowing them to live where they like.

“But they can’t really be integrated if they can’t go out, are treated differently or worse if they are robbed or burgled. How often that sort of thing happens we don’t know, but what we do know is that it does happen.”

Titled ‘Living in Fear: Promoting Better Outcomes for People with Disabilities’, the Medway-based project will use local focus groups as well as web- and telephone-based national surveys to research hate crimes and how agencies like the police respond to them.

It will run for three years in partnership with Autism London and the learning disability charity MCCH, with an estimated 500 individuals and 20 organisations expected to benefit.

Organisers hope the project will serve as an evidence base to enable policymakers to improve the support on offer to vulnerable people.

Dr Beadle-Brown said: “Through a very small amount of research we know it is an issue, and one of the things we need to explore is just what the people are reporting.

“We believe it probably takes the same form as other types of abuse like racial harassment, but it might seem more severe to some people with learning difficulties.

“We don’t know how prevalent these attacks are so our aim is to explore that with sufferers, police and carers to see how often it happens and what the outcomes are.

“Medway is quite a well-defined area so we can explore the issues here fairly easily. There shouldn’t be any difference really with anywhere else in Kent.”

Maria Bremmers, network co-ordinator for Autism London, said the charity was delighted to receive the Big Lottery grant.

She added: “A number of excellent community safety initiatives can be found in the UK, and Kent is no exception.

“But there is little robust evidence to inform policy and practice, especially concerning the experiences of people with autism.

“There is a strong commitment from all the stakeholders in this project to make a real difference by filling the gaps in knowledge and, where necessary, making real and lasting change.”