Revealing the Benefits, Barriers, and Prevalence of Intersectionality in Disability Hate Crime Research

Editors: Burch, L. and Wilkins, D.

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781032579795

Abstract:

Intersectionality as an analytical framework first entered mainstream academic discourse in the ground-breaking work of Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989; 1991), with its foundations firmly positioned in revealing the discriminatory experiences of black women. Since its inception, its use within academic, activist and policy practice has exponentially expanded, and it is now applied in research conducted across a plethora of analytical categories (Anthias, 2014). Despite advocates championing intersectionality as a method for analysing victim experiences of disability hate crimes (Liasidou, 2013; Balderston, 2013), there is a lack of intersectionality within empirical hate studies specifically. This chapter considers authentic intersectional research on disablist hate crimes via three encompassing themes. It explores extant literature to consider which specific intersectional categories disability hate crime researchers are looking at before discussing whether there are barriers to its wider approval and endorsement within hate crime scholarship. Lastly, the chapter examines whether intersectionality can produce change in conceptualising disability hate crimes. Each theme is finally considered in intersection with each other, so that the benefits and challenges to applying intersectionality to disability hate crime research are revealed.

Source: Manual