Missing From the Conversation of Violence: Disability

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: On the Violences of Disablism: Finding Strength in Dis/Abled Voices

Abstract

Data describing violence against people with disabilities by police or civilians is scarce. Media coverage of this violence often focuses on other aspects of victims’ identities. The data and coverage that does exist is staggering: people with disabilities represent one third to one half of all people killed by law enforcement, and experience twice the rate of violence. From a theoretical lens of intersectionality and DisCrit, this paper attempts to understand discrepancies between the statistics of violence involving persons with disabilities and media coverage. Implications and connections to school victimization for students with disabilities is discussed and offered as fundamental to understanding the adult violence rates, as schools are sites where students learn implicitly and explicitly about disability and difference.

Authors

• Carlyn Mueller, Vanderbilt University

• Anjali J. Forber-Pratt, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College