Ableism as Violence

Ableism produces measurable harm – to bodies, minds and lives. This book argues it should be understood not just as structural oppression, but as violence. Drawing on definitions of violence from the World Health Organization and sociologist Sylvia Walby, Beckett and Griffiths develop an original four-part violence-typology: direct harmful acts, failures to act, discretionary denial of care and policy withdrawal of support. Theorising ableism as a dispositif of violence, they apply this framework to hate crimes, microaggressions, institutional confinement, assisted dying and the deprioritisation of disabled lives during COVID-19. Weaving rigorous analysis with dialogue between a disabled academic-activist and non-disabled ally, this is scholarship as resistance – naming violence where it is too often obscured.