Cyber-Disability Hate Cases in the UK: The Documentation by the Police and Potential Barriers to Reporting

Alhaboby, Zhraa A.; Al-Khateeb, Haider M.; Barnes, James; Jahankhani, Hamid; Pitchford, Melanie; Conradie, Liesl and Short, Emma (2021). Cyber-Disability Hate Cases in the UK: The Documentation by the Police and Potential Barriers to Reporting. In: Cybersecurity, Privacy and Freedom Protection in the Connected World Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Global Security, Safety and Sustainability, London, January 2021 (Jahankhani, Hamid; Jamal, Arshad and Lawson, Shaun eds.) pp. 123–133.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68534-8_8

Abstract

Disability hate crime is under-reported in the UK with perceived limited support given to the victims. The use of online communication resulted in cyber-disability hate cases, recognised by the Police with the addition of an ‘online-flag’ in the documentation. However, the cases remain under-reported, with potential individual, societal and organisational barriers to reporting especially during a pandemic. This paper aims to contextualise the reporting of cyber-disability hate cases, identify potential barriers, and provide recommendations to improve support to victims by the Police. The retrospective examination was carried out on disability-related cyber incidents documented by a police force in the UK for 19 months. Among 3,349 cyber-crimes, 23 cases were included. The analysis covered descriptive statistics and qualitative document analysis (QDA). Only 0.7% of cyber incidents or 6.7% of cyber-hate incidents were disability related. The age of victims ranged between 15 and 61 years, with a mean of 25.8 years. Most of the victims (78%) were from White ethnic background, and the majority were females (61.5%). Three overarching themes emerged from the qualitative data as influencers of reporting or documentation, these were: psychological impact, fear for safety, and the type of disability. Cyber-offences resulted in a serious impact on wellbeing, however, cases that included people with visible disabilities were more documented. Further awareness-raising targeting the police and public is needed to understand the impact of cyber-offences and recognise the different types of disabilities, which might encourage both reporting and documentation.

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