Discriminatory abuse is unfair treatment of an individual based on their protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, gender, marital status, pregnancy, disability, race, nationality, ethnicity, religious belief, sex and sexual orientation. Abuse can include but is not limited to harassment, physical violence, neglect and financial control. A more comprehensive definition of abuse can be found in The Care Act 2014.
Discriminatory abuse is often a highly complex issue involving layers of intersectionality and cultural sensitivity.
Most of the legislation surrounding this form abuse can be found in The Equality Act 2010 and The Care Act 2014.
For detail of the legal issues around discriminatory abuse see: Understanding Discriminatory Abuse Law in the UK (thecheckup.co.uk)
Discriminatory abuse has been highlighted in many national and local safeguarding reviews as an area of concern for professionals.
National reviews:
Fiona Pilkington (Leicestershire) | Hampshire Safeguarding Adults Board (hampshiresab.org.uk)
Steven Hoskin (Cornwall) | Hampshire Safeguarding Adults Board (hampshiresab.org.uk)
Gemma Hayter (Warwickshire) | Hampshire Safeguarding Adults Board (hampshiresab.org.uk)
Independent review published - Diocese of Oxford (anglican.org)
Local reviews:
Bakar SAR
bakar-sar-final-for-publication.pdf (bristolsafeguarding.org)
learning-briefing-sar-bakar-final-for-publication.pdf (bristolsafeguarding.org)
Mate Crime Thematic Review
mate-crime-thematic-review-final.pdf (bristolsafeguarding.org)
Kamil Ahmad and Mr X SAR
kamil-ahmad-and-mr-x-sar-report-final-for-publication.pdf (bristolsafeguarding.org)
Out of these reviews some specific topics have been highlighted:
A hate crime is a criminal offence which has been perceived by the victim as being motivated by prejudice and/or hate. Discriminatory abuse can often be classed as hate crime and vice versa.
Hate crime is highlighted as a specific issue in the Fiona Pilkington case above.
You can read more about hate crime on our page here.
Further resources on hate crime:
Microsoft Word - How to stand by me_FINAL_1.doc (mencap.org.uk)
disability_hate_crime_guide_for_carers_and_supporters_september_2020.pdf (report-it.org.uk)
Organisations That Can Help - True Vision (report-it.org.uk)
SARI - Stand Against Racism & Inequality (saricharity.org.uk)
Hate-Crime-7MB-For-Partners_.pdf (lancashiresafeguarding.org.uk)
You can find national data on hate crime here
Mate crime is when an individual befriends someone in order to exploit them in a criminal manner. Often the people targeted are disabled and so this becomes a form of discriminatory abuse.
In the examples above, mate crime is a feature of both the Steven Hoskin and the Gemma Hayter reviews. There was also a Thematic Review local to Bristol which was carried out in relation to this issue specifically.
See below a video explaining mate crime:
In a 2021 report it was stated that two-thirds of LGBTQIA+ people had experienced violence or abuse as a result of their identification or sexuality. The Peter Farquhar review above is a further example of this and there are many more. A 2017 government survey further displays the extent of the issue: National LGBT Survey Report.
Resources for professionals to help tackle this issue can be found here:
working-with-victims-of-anti_lgbt-hate-crimes-1.pdf (report-it.org.uk)
online-crime-2020_0.pdf (report-it.org.uk)
hate-crime-report-2019.pdf (report-it.org.uk)
lgbt_in_britain_hate_crime.pdf (stonewall.org.uk)
Resources Hate Crime (galop.org.uk)
Intersectionality is the framework for understanding how different aspects of a person's identity, such as race, gender, class, and sexuality, intersect and interact to create unique experiences of privilege and discrimination (https://practicalpie.com/intersectionality/).
This video provides a basic outline of intersectionality:
Further resources on intersectionality can be found here:
Intersectionality in Psychology (9 Examples + Definition) - Practical Psychology (practicalpie.com)
15 Examples of Intersectionality (2024) (helpfulprofessor.com)
Cultural-Competence-March-2019-Final-1.pdf (newcastlesafeguarding.org.uk)
INTERSECTIONALITY RESOURCE GUIDE AND TOOLKIT (unwomen.org)
Bristol data on different factors for the framework of intersectionality.
Population data
Ethnicity data:
White: 81.1 %
Asian 6.6 %
Black 5.9 %
Mixed or multiple 4.5 %
Other 1.9 %
Faith data
No religion 51.4 %
Christian 32.2 %
Muslim 6.7 %
Hindu 0.8 %
Sikh 0.5 %
Jewish 0.3 %
Other 0.8%
*6.9 percent did not answer this
12.9 % of the population are over the age of 65
LGBTQ+
In Bristol 6.3 % of people over the age of 16 describe their sexual orientation other than heterosexual.
0.8 % identify as transgender or non binary.
Deprivation
Household deprivation
50.2 % of households in Bristol are not deprived in any dimension
31.8 % are deprived in 1 dimension
13.8 % are deprived in 2 dimensions
3.9 % are deprived in 3 dimensions
0.3 % are deprived in 4 dimensions
Income Deprivation
14.1 % of residents are income deprived. This is not spread evenly across the city with 63 of the 263 neighbourhoods in Bristol being in the top 20 % most income deprived areas in England & Wales
These are more concentrated around the areas of Hartcliffe, Filwood, Lawrence Hill, Southmead and Avonmouth/Lawrence Weston.
Disability
24.2 % of Bristol's residents are disabled under the Equality Act with 6.9 % saying their day to day activities are limited a lot.
Unpaid Carers
7.6 % of residents provide some level of unpaid care a week
Housing
Bristol has a total housing stock of 191,638 properties
25.2 % owned outright
29.7 % mortgaged
18.7 % social rent
26.4 % private rental sector
Style of Housing
6.0 % of properties are detached
26.6 % semi detached
32.1 % terraced
21.9 % flats
10.2 % part of a shared house
1.3 % other
Often, in complex cases, levels of professional curiosity have a significant influence on outcomes. Professionals are often carrying high workloads and so it becomes difficult to maintain high enough levels of curiosity but there are various toolkits which can help.
North Tyneside SAB put together a great resource below which may help professionals to develop their skills:
Lads Like Us provide a highly informative training package on the subject with a lived experience lead focus. Leeds SAB provide some useful tools on how to tackle difficult conversations: Managing difficult conversations (leedssafeguardingadults.org.uk).
Research in practice also offer some useful tips on the topic both for strategic leaders and operational managers. There is some particularly useful information on pages 18-20 of this presentation.
More on professional curiosity can be found here:
Professional curiosity for practitioners (leedssafeguardingadults.org.uk)
PowerPoint Presentation (bexleysafeguardingpartnership.co.uk)
Resource_pack___Professional_Curiosity.pdf
OSAB-Professional-Curiosity-Guidance.pdf
PowerPoint Presentation (lrsb.org.uk)
Safeguarding Adults Week 2021 - Professional Curiosity (youtube.com)
Professional Curiosity Podcast (youtube.com)
As shown in the reviews above, unconscious bias can easily lead to discrimination and abuse. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations have some useful exercises that you can do in order to address unconscious biases as professionals: Dealing With Unconscious Bias.
Further resources on unconscious bias can be found here:
Training Video on Unconscious Bias (English Version) (youtube.com)
Becoming aware of unconscious bias (youtube.com)
Disguised compliance can often mean that professionals feel they are making progress with a case when in fact the same issues are persisting. Tackling this requires high levels of professional curiosity.
Further resources on this topic can be found here:
SSP_practice_brief___Working_with_resistance_or_disguised_compliance.pdf
We would really value your feedback on this page to improve this and our future resources. (Link will take you to a Microsoft Form). Purpose: The purpose of this survey is to help the KBSP understand how effective these resources are in supporting professionals working with individuals experiencing Discriminatory Abuse. How the results will be used: The results will be used to analyse how we could develop and improve this resource to meet the needs of local professionals. How the results will be stored: Data received from this survey will be stored on SharePoint on BCC servers. Consent: It is an optional requirement to complete this survey. By completing the survey, you have given BCC (Bristol City Council)/KBSP (Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership) consent to use the details as described in the purpose above. Data collected from this survey is anonymised.
