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Types of disabilities:
Physical: having to do with the impairment of body part or functioning.
Sensory: an impairment of sight, hearing, taste, touch or smell.
Cognitive: an impairment of brain or mental functioning.

There are four ways a person may become disabled:

  1. Congenital, meaning disabled from birth, developmentally or physically
  2. Through an accident (fall, car collisions, etc.)
  3. After developing an illness
  4. Due to crime related injuries

  • 7 percent of boys and 4 percent of girls ages 5 to 15 have disabilities
  • 20 percent of men and 18 percent of women ages 16 to 64 have disabilities
  • 43 percent of women and 40 percent of men 65 or older have disabilities
Rates of violent crime against people with disabilities are found to be four to ten times higher then the rate against the general population.
  • Children with any kind of disability are more than twice as likely as non-disabled children to be abused and almost twice as likely to be sexually abused.
  • In a recent study of people with developmental disabilities, 83% or the women and 32% of the men had been sexually assaulted.
  • People with cognitive challenges were robbed 12.8 times more often then people with out disabilities.
  • People with disabilities are also more likely to be repeatedly victimized.

Acts of abuse, crime, harm, neglect and violence to people with disabilities can happen in all of the following situations:
  1. Assisted Living Facilities
  2. Care-Group Homes
  3. Home
  4. Hospitals
  5. In-Transit
  6. Parking Lots
  7. Nursing Homes
  8. Schools
  9. Work Place

The following suggests several reasons why people with disabilities are at greater risk of victimization than the general population:
  1. Social isolation
  2. Increased dependency on others
  3. Learned compliance
  4. Less physically able to defend themselves
  5. Societal views, discrimination, stereotypes
  6. Limited access to services (rape crisis centers, law enforcement or shelters)
  7. Perceptions of powerlessness
  8. Lack of comprehensive sexuality education
  9. Lack of control or choice over their own affairs
  10. Lack of believability
  11. Communication difficulties

Reporting a crime can be more difficult for people with disabilities due to the following:
  1. Hard to believe they have a voice. Their credibility is often questioned.
  2. They may feel that they can't trust their own judgment.
  3. Isolation limits opportunities to form healthy relationships or opportunities to report the abuse.
  4. Because of their dependency on others, they must depend on the caregiver. If the caregiver is the abuser, one can be denied access to devices, communication, or correct doses of medication.
  5. The caregiver can deny, or make one wait for basic needs such as food and water.
  6. The caregiver can decide to not report medical needs, or fail to provide personal care.
  7. Unreliable reporting by the caregiver to mental health systems can discredit the disabled person.
Many people with disabilities have difficulty trusting the very systems that are in place to assist them, such as:
  1. A victim may be reluctant to disclose information for fear of loosing their autonomy, or fear placement in an institution or group home.
  2. The criminal justice system may also ignore the disabled person due to myths regarding credibility, or that they lack the capacity to fully understand the criminal justice system procedure and process.
  3. Physical access to buildings or transportation systems is not always possible.
Why do crimes against the disabled continue to occur?
  1. Low community awareness
  2. Low community commitment
  3. Language of the disabled; most people do not understand what "disability" means
  4. People with disabilities too afraid or unable to report the crime
  5. Shelters and systems unprepared to assist the disabled.
Addressing the Problem
  • Be familiar with local or state victim service organization that can assist with legal advocacy, crime victim compensation and counseling services
  • Build accessibility to your services
  • Establish rapport with the disabled individual
  • Train all members of a community response team on how to related to people with disabilities
  • Network and cross-train between criminal justice systems and victim service organizations.
  • Establish collaborative partnerships with community based entities, such as service organizations, citizens groups, faith-based organizations as "community watchers."
  • Streamline interviews and intake procedures when reporting does occur.
  • Identify "safe people and safe places" for individuals with disabilities to report to when a crime does occur.
  • Develop personal safety plans.
  • Educate people with disabilities about the nature of criminal activity and to whom they should report crimes against them and how to access help.