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Safety Net: Understanding Mate Crime and Vulnerability for Safer Communities

Learn about mate crime, vulnerability, and community safety through the Safety Net project findings. Explore how to identify and report issues to protect against exploitation and abuse.

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Safety Net: Understanding Mate Crime and Vulnerability for Safer Communities

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  1. Mate Crime Friend or Fake? Roderick Landman

  2. Safety Net What is a friend?

  3. This session • Beginnings • Safety Net Project • What is ‘mate crime’? • What makes people ‘vulnerable’ to mate crime? • What makes it different to ‘hate crime’ and ‘abuse’? • Reporting issues • Project findings • A tentative definition

  4. Background ‘Steven wanted friends. He did not see that the friendship he had so prized was starkly exploitative, devoid of reciprocity and instrumental in obstructing his relationships with those who would have safeguarded him.’ • Steven Hoskin Serious Care Review (2007).

  5. Background 2 • Pattern of murders. • Local anecdotes. • We called this ‘Mate Crime’ • ‘The term ‘disability hate crime’ fails to recognise the duration of Steven’s contact with his persecutors; the counterfeit friendship’

  6. Safety Net • Funded by the Department of Health (2009) • 3 years • National Project. Two pilots – Calderdale, North Devon. • Awareness; protocols; training; toolkit.

  7. ‘Mate Crime’ • Recognised in EHRC Report • Recognised by CPS • “Gemma was vulnerable to the risk of abuse and . . . had been a victim of ‘mate crime’ on a regular basis over a period of time” [Gemma Hayter Serious Case Review, 2011]

  8. What is ‘mate crime’? • Many people with situational vulnerabilities have ‘friends’ who go on to abuse the trust placed in them. • This has led to people losing their independence, financial, physical and sexual abuse . . . even murder. • Involves ‘grooming’. • Includes people being used to commit crimes. • Includes cyber crime

  9. What makes some people so vulnerable?

  10. What makes some people particularly vulnerable? • We are all ‘vulnerable’ • We all need friends • Easily manipulated - learned compliance. • Poverty & Social Exclusion • Community presence • Historical attitudes • What is ‘normal’?

  11. ‘Historical’ attitudes? The victim comes from North Devon but was on a day out to the seaside with her mother, who travelled separately to give her the chance to manage on her own. Fitzhugh pulled the girl off the platform by her wrists and kissed her on the lips before groping her breasts and trying to take her behind a bus station. She was terrified and managed to escape and run off. She met her mother and the police were called. Fitzhugh was identified from CCTV from the train but denied the offence, claiming the girl was too ugly to interest him and telling police “you know what mental people are like, they twist things around and make up stories and lies about other people”. North Devon Journal 9/4/15

  12. What makes it different? (1) • Duration of contact • May appear consensual • It takes place in private • It doesn’t seem to involve hate • Perpetrators are known and trusted • Not recognised by victim

  13. What makes it different? (2) • There are ‘pay offs’ for the victim • May not be illegal • Largely affects people not in the system . . . it is an invisible crime, with invisible perpetrators and victims, taking place in invisible situations.

  14. Extent of mate crime: all crime • 90% of PLD experienced harassment in the last year [Mencap 1999] • 32% daily/weekly • 50% of disabled people have experienced a disability hate crime [DRC 2004] • 20% weekly attacks • 75% PLD are victims of crime [UKDPC 2007] • PLD are 4 times more likely to be assaulted than the general public [NACRO 2002]

  15. Extent of mate crime: mate crime? • 20% of disabled people have been attacked by a friend or colleague [DRC 2004] • In 40% of Safeguarding alerts the perpetrator is a family member or informal carer [Tizard Centre 2006]

  16. New evidence: Wirral Report • 85% of those aged 16+ often feel lonely and left out. • ALL 16-25 year olds reported having difficulty distinguishing genuine friends from those who may bully or abuse the friendship in some way.  • 80% of those aged 16+ felt they had been bullied or taken advantage of by someone they had thought was a friend. • Of those experiencing mate crime: 54% of 12-16 year-olds had had money or possessions stolen.   • In the 25+ age group, 74% reported that they had been manipulated or forced to do the wrong thing. • Over a third of adults with autism had been subject to bullying or manipulation of a sexual nature - including being coerced into 'sexting’. Wirral Autistic Society, 2015

  17. Extent of mate crime: under reporting • 25% of crimes experienced by PLD go unreported. • Less than 20% are reported directly to the Police [both Mencap 1999] • 98% of PLD hate crimes go unreported [D&C Police 2010]

  18. How can we spot it?

  19. How to spot mate crime 1 • Changes • Unexplained injuries • Not looking after yourself • Bills not paid • ‘Friends’ who don’t behave like friends

  20. How to spot mate crime 2 • Money problems • Mental ill health • Losing usual friends and family • Missing usual activities • Mail order • Party mess

  21. Apparent links • Multiple perpetrators • High number of females • Spurious excuse? • Prolonged period of torture • Brutal murder • Troubled history

  22. Why is it not reported?

  23. Reporting Mate Crime Core issues • Credibility • Lack of action • Retribution

  24. Reporting Mate Crime Additional issues: • Capacity • Complicity • Need for acceptance and validation • Shame

  25. “I don’t want them to get criminal records. I want them to make something positive of their lives. Perhaps in time we could become friends.”

  26. Findings • Huge under-reporting • MCA issues/Informed decisions • Not recognised by victims • Similarities to Domestic Abuse • Some apparent links in extreme cases • ‘Safeguarding’ is often failing

  27. Mate Crime - a working definition • Mate Crime happens when a person with a learning disability is ‘befriended’ by someone who goes on to abuse or exploit that relationship. The founding intention of the relationship, from the point of view of the perpetrator, is likely to be criminal, but not necessarily so. The relationship is likely to be of some duration and, if unchecked, may lead to a pattern of repeat and worsening abuse.

  28. Can you choose abuse? • Yes! • . . . unless . . . • . . . a serious crime is involved, or . . . • there is coercion. • You should still make them aware of risks, impact and strategies. • Review, record and report.

  29. Recent & current work • ‘Helping Each Other’ (Peer Education/Sexual Exploitation) • SaferNet (Social Media Hate & Mate Crime) – safernet.org.uk • Self Harm & Learning Disability

  30. Safety Net • arcuk.org.uk/safetynet • Rod Landman • 01237 441 786 • rod.landman@arcuk.org.uk

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