Federal Hate Crime Statute

President Obama expanded the federal hate crime statute in October 2009 to include crimes based on a person's disability. The murder of Jennifer Daugherty, 30, who was killed in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, may be the first case to use the expanded federal hate crime legislation involving a disabled person. Ms. Daugherty, who was diagnosed with a mental disability, had the mental faculties of a 12 to 14 year old. The U.S. Justice Department released a special report, which found that people with disabilities within the age groups of 12-19 and 35-49 are more than twice as likely to be victims of violence as compared to non-disabled individuals. Further, people with mental disabilities are more often victims of violence than people with other disabilities. Curtis Decker, executive director of the Disability Rights Network in Washington, D.C., believes a major reason for including disability in the expansion of Federal Hate Crime legislation is to enable monitoring by federal authorities of crimes against people with disabilities.

Full story: Joe Smydo, Federal Hate Crime Law Now Protects Those with Disabilities, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 13, 2010, available athttp://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10044/1035678-455.stm

Michael R. Rand & Erika Harrell, Crime Against People with Disabilities, 2007, U.S. Department of Justice, October 2009, available athttp://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/capd07.pdf


The previous story was taken from:
The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter
An electronic publication of The Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Lawhttp://disability.law.uiowa.edu/and The Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse Universityhttp://bbi.syr.edu