– The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of mate crime and attempts to assess its practical as well as its theoretical implications.
– It begins with an account of the short history of the concept and then positions mate crime within academic theorising around general hate crime and disability.
– Particular reference is made to the significance of the issue of vulnerability and how its interpretation might affect understanding of this phenomenon.
– This is followed by some observations on how agencies of social policy and the legislature are responding to the issue of mate crime.
– Particular reference is paid to the impact of safeguarding adults procedures.
– It concludes that, although “mates” can (and do) “hate”, further research is required on the subject in order to gain better knowledge of the issue from both a theoretical and a practice position.
