The control and coercion of disabled individuals: the injustice of legal violence of medical and pharmaceutical interventions

Abstract

Since early asylums, people with disabilities and psychiatric disorders were disproportionately institutionalized and coerced to harmful treatment. Today, the same people are disproportionately incarcerated, sharing similar values once held by asylums. Ableist and disablist practices must be accounted for to address the injustice faced by disabled people and people with psychiatric disorders. Using criminological frameworks, this paper studies the surveillance and loss of autonomy disabled people and people with psychiatric disorders face in favour of government power and control.