Hate crimes - examples and explanations

Post Reply New Topic

I work in the disability movement in an organisation run and contolled by people with learning difficulites and as I have Asperger's I have been asked to give examples of things that should be taken into account in relation hate crime and people on the Austic spectrumfor a consultationon hate crime.
I am not sure if I am being asked for hate crime in general or just Autism/Asperger's/Learning difficulty/disability hate crime, so am covering general.

Please could you add you ideas to the following as it would be good to pass over as much as possible.


Things that might be related to people on the autistic spectrum:


Literal interpretation this can include:
- Not knowing the crime is a ‘hate’ crime - so gives a negative answer where a positive should be given
- Thinking that it can’t be a hate crime as the person does not know them so cannot hate them
- Thinking that a person they know that hates them as an ‘individual’ has committed a ‘hate crime’ where it is not connected to their difference at all.
- If asked ‘Do you know the person’? (where they do) that then it is then not a hate crime connected to their difference (where it is).
- Literal interpretation of facial expression – they were smiling/laughing so they were not being hateful
- literal interpretation of wrongly assumed beliefs not just correct beliefs. i.e. the assumption that racist hate crime is only racist if it happens to BME groups and therefore if it happens to a white person it is not a racist hate crime. (This may mean it is not reported or not reported as a racist hate crime. Or the same as above for sexist crime not being recognised as sexist if it happens to a male).

Difficulty with recognition
- A lot of people on the autistic spectrum have difficulty with face recognition – this often results in being written off as an ‘unreliable witness’.

Difficulty with communication and language
- Not understanding colloquialisms or words/phrases – especially when used out of context
- Talking in a way seen as inappropriate – too formal/casual for the situation
- Not showing empathy ( does not mean does not care)
- Not displaying emotions typically assumed to be appropriate (does not mean they do not feel the emotion)
- May not be aware of own or others emotions
- Get caught up in thinking in detail about something and missing bigger picture
- Analysing what has been said but conversation has moved on
- Confusion on things said/ words used out of context and getting caught up working out the meaning – ie. when a person says things like ‘obviously …………………..’ when the subject is not obvious. This might mean the person on the spectrum gets caught up in wondering why it is obvious and thinking they must be stupid not to see it. This could them stress them out making them more prone to sensory integration difficulties, which, in return stresses them more.
- Saying ‘no’ when the answer is really ‘yes’ or the other way around because they don’t like the word used. i.e. ‘Are you a ‘victim’ of…….. – The person may not like to see themselves as a ‘victim’ and so say ‘no’. This could then result in a no crime committed result.


Different processing
- Over or under sensitivity to sound, smell, and other senses
- Experiencing/sensing things in a different way to the typical Might result in them saying things or reacting in a way seen as inappropriate or strange


Incorrect assumptions made buy others and things that might get missed
- autistic people cannot communicate
- are all withdrawn
- varying communication / processing ability day-to-day or moment-to-moment (often made worse by environmental issues that go unnoticed by others). This can make it look put-on when poor ability compared to good times.

Might withdraw and it might get seen as ignoring

Are they looking for information purely from the perspective of the victim of a hate-crime or are they looking also for things that might crop up when investigating an autistic person as the alleged perpetrator of a hate-crime, things that investigators need to know and that a good defense attorney should watch for? I can see where the defendant's misunderstanding over what exactly constitutes a hate-crime or an investigator's misinterpretations of their suspect's reasoning and behavior might get in the way of sorting out the latter, as well, especially in court, and might lead to a miscarriage of justice for the accused, whether the person is actually guilty of a crime or not.