A report about people with learning disabilities and their experiences of harassment, abuse and related crime in the community. Lemos&Crane’s report Loneliness and Cruelty is a groundbreaking study based on in-depth interviews by frontline practitioners across the UK. The report shows that people with learning disabilities living independently in the community experience a disturbing range of harassment, abuse and related crime with alarming frequency. The perpetrators in the main are local people, neighbours, often young people and schoolchildren. Incidents happen when people are out and about in the community, but also in and around their homes. Above all, these incidents are straightforward cruelty. The loneliness of some people with learning disabilities is putting them at particular risk, leaving them with little choice but to visit hostile public spaces and spend time with exploitative and cruel people.
