Disabled justice: A qualitative case study on barriers to registration of disability hate crime within the Norwegian criminal justice system

Abstract

In 2013, persons with disabilities attained initial legal protection against hate crime in Norway. However, no cases of disability hate crime have been registered by the Norwegian justice system to date. This stands in stark opposition to previous studies showing that persons with disabilities are disproportionately exposed to violence, harassment, and abuse compared to their non-disabled peers. This thesis explores this discrepancy by studying the topic of barriers to registration of disability hate crime in the Norwegian criminal justice system. The overall research question of the thesis is as follows: Why do hate crimes against persons with disabilities fail to get registered within the Norwegian criminal justice system? In order to address this research question, primary data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with five key professionals within the Norwegian justice system working with hate crime at a specialized level. The empirical data were analyzed within a broader theoretical understanding of hatred against persons with disabilities as rooted in underlying societal contempt of perceived weakness. The overall finding of the thesis is that the absence of registered cases of disability hate crime within the Norwegian justice system is rooted in a general disbelief of disability hate crime stemming from a lack of understanding of the societal processes that lead to hate crime against persons with disabilities. As a result of this disbelief, disability hate crime is likely to be either ignored or miscategorized by police officers and prosecutors. The thesis concludes by stating that while persons with disabilities have gained equal legal protection against hate crime in principle, due to a number of barriers within the Norwegian criminal justice system this protection is largely inaccessible in practice.