Violence Against the Disabled as a Subject of Interdisciplinary Studies

Abstract

Violence is both a subject of scientific analyses and statistical studies, and a subject willingly undertaken by the journalists and writers. On the one hand, we obtain figures and attempts at
systematising the phenomenon, on the other, there are stories of real or fictional characters who experience domestic violence, mobbing or cyberbullying. The presence of violence in the media, computer games and everyday life is a challenge not only for the police, lawyers and social workers, but also for psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and educators analysing violence as a phenomenon accompanying the humanity since its prehistory.
Violence implies a potential or actual physical weakness of its victims (children, women, animals) and/or remaining in the minority relation to its perpetrators (ethnic, religious, political, sexual minorities). In this structure a special place is occupied by disabled people, whose physical weakness and meeting the criteria of a minority group most often exacerbate problems related to violence against this social group. An accurate description and explanation of these issues require an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of the factors causing and sustaining violence against people with disabilities.