Violence against people with disabilities


Both adults and children who have some form of disability will experience acts of violence against them more often than those without disabilities. Children with disabilities are 3.7 times more likely to be affected by any sort of violence, 3.6 times more likely to be victims of physical violence, 2.9 times more likely to be victims of sexual violence, and children with intellectual impairment are the most vulnerable being 4.6 times more likely to experience sexual violence than their non-disabled peers.
An article published by the World Health Organization titled Prevalence and risk of violence against adults with disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies revealed that adults with any form of disability are 1.5 times more likely to experience some form of violence while adults with some form of mental impairment are 4 times more likely to experience violence than those without disabilities.

Comparison Groups

As mentioned by Powers and Oschwald, there are seven categories of abusive behavior defined by both male and female individuals who have some form of disability: physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal or emotional abuse, neglect or withholding support, financial abuse, manipulation of medications, and destroying or disabling equipment.

Institutional vs. non-institutional

When comparing and contrasting institutional and non-institutional cases of violence against people with disabilities, 82% of violence against people who are disabled happens when they are institutionalized. Common thought is that institutions "inherently promote abuse and dehumanization." Although, institutionalized cases are far more present than non-institutionalized cases, statistics show that sexual assault based violence is 7 times more probable among intellectually disabled people and that number jumps to 12 times more probable if that person is a woman compared to a non-disabled peer.

Disability type vs. age

Age plays a major factor when looking into non-institutionalized violence. Those who have some form of disability ranging from the ages of 12 to 15 experience violence at a rate of 144.1 out of 1000 persons compared to their non-disabled peers at a rate of 38.8 out of a thousand with a rate difference being 105.3. Disabled teens ranging from the ages of 16 to 19 experience violence at a rate of 86.6 out of 1000 persons compared to their non-disabled peers at the rate of 31.4 out of 1000 persons. Examining the age ranges of 20 to 24, and 25 to 34 collectively to represent a persons twenties to mid thirties, the data shows that people with a some form of disability in that age range goes at a rate of 147.9 out of 1000 persons compared to 55.9 to their non-disabled peers with a rate difference of 92 out of 1000.

Disability type vs. gender

Examining statistics from Crime Against Persons with Disabilities table 5, results highlight that females between the ages of 12 and higher experience slightly higher percentages of violence among the disabled community compared to males of the same age group except for ambulatory disabilities. The rate of violence committed against men with a cognitive disability is 55.4 while females are at 60.3 out of 1000. Ambulatory disability being the only category where men have a higher rate comes to 29.6 while females are at 29.3 with a difference of 0.3. Visual impairment has a significant effect on the outcome of violence between the sexes as men are at a rate of 24.6 while females are 32.3 out of 1000 concluding a difference of 7.7. Lastly, table 8 displays a slight difference of 1.8 between the sexes with males at 15 while females are at 16.8.

Victim-offender relationship vs. disability status

Referencing Crime Against Persons with Disabilities table 8, it is evident that persons with disabilities are at risk of a higher rate of violence committed against them than their non-disabled peers. Additionally, according to the data, individuals who have some form of disability are at a higher risk of being victimized by a well-known or casual acquaintance over a complete stranger unlike their non-disabled peers; people whom have experienced an act of violence by a stranger with a disability being at 30.3% while non-disabled people are at 39.4% by a complete stranger.