Understanding Disability and Everyday Hate

This book examines disability hate crime. It focusses on key questions concerning the ways in which hate is understood and experienced within the context of the everyday, in addition to the unique ways that hate can hurt and be resisted. It introduces readers to questions surrounding the conceptual framework of hate and policy context in England and Wales, and extends these discussions to center upon the experiences of disabled people. It presents a conceptual reconsideration of hate crime that connects hate, disability and everyday lives and spaces using an affective (embodied and emotional) understanding of these experiences. Drawing on empirical data, this framework helps to attend to the diverse ways that disabled people negotiate, respond to, and resist hate within the context of their everyday lives. The book argues that the affective capacity of disabled people can be enhanced through their reflections upon hateful experiences and general experiences of navigating a disabling social world. By working with the concept of ‘affective possibility’, this book offers a more affirmative approach to harnessing the everyday forms of resistance already present within disabled people’s lives. It speaks to academics, students, and practitioners interested in disability, affect studies, hate crime studies, sociology, and criminology.