Demand #12: Decriminalise difference

Guest demand by an anonymous aspie campaigner

Decriminalise psychological, cultural, lifestyle, ethnic, and other forms of difference.

Difference is criminalised or pathologised in a wide range of ways – from laws against nuisance to mental health detention; from discourses on ‘disruptive’ children and educational rationing to the criminalisation of countercultures such as raving, squatting and skateboarding; from 'profiling’ of unusual actions in public spaces as suspicious, to the widespread abuse of restraint procedures and police violence; from the treatment of psychological breakdowns as liable crimes, instead of personal crises, to the dual legal system arising from thecounter-extremism agenda. As a result of these tendencies, being different – especially being psychologically, subculturally, culturally, or ethnically different – is a de facto crime in contemporary Britain.

There is not a single law prohibiting difference. Rather, a raft of small, cutting measures - the criminalisation of nuisance, extraordinary personalised regimes such as ASBOs, the escalating use of banning orders, the Prevent and counter-extremism strategy, arbitrary powers such as dispersal zones, policing of speech on the Internet, New Managerialism in a range of public institutions, risk management in a wide range of organisations impelled by government-imposed duties or legal risks – have served to create situations where difference is easily framed and treated as criminality, risk, or pathology. People can find themselves serving long jail terms, sectioned indefinitely, or subject to draconian restrictions on their everyday life because they have an unusual or eccentric interest (exploring trains, rambling naked…) or because they have a meltdown or psychotic break at the wrong time or place. Many of these episodes would previously have been treated either as obvious effects of psychological difference or personal crisis, or as harmless eccentricities to be tolerated. Similar measures have impacted on cultures and subcultures which are outside the range of tolerance of the Daily Mail or the Telegraph. Designated no-drinking areas areas, criminalisation of squatting and skipping, dispersal and other 'anti-social behaviour’ laws aimed at young people, laws against free parties and Travellers are all examples of this kind of intolerance.

Psychological difference should be seen as legitimate difference. So should cultural, subcultural, and ethnic difference. The fact that an action is different does not make it wrong, dangerous, or harmful. All harmless actions – however unusual they seem to an observer – and all actions which are less harmful than being criminalised, should be decriminalised at once. Harmful actions related to psychological difference should be treated compassionately, as unintended, non-criminal acts arising from distress, unless there is a very good reason to assume otherwise. Every psychological 'type’, culture, and subculture should have a guaranteed right to its own spaces, lifestyle, and the resources necessary for these.

18th March 2015

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