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27 Hum. Rts. 9 (2000)
Invisible Victims - Violence against Persons with Developmental Disabilities

handle is hein.journals/huri27 and id is 11 raw text is: 6-VI 1 ictms Violence Against Persons with Developmental Disabilities By Joa Petersilia rime in the United States is decreas- ing and is now at its lowest level since 1973. Despite this trend, Americans with developmental disabili- ties have not experienced greater safety. In fact, recent research and the anecdo- tal experience of those who work with persons with disabilities suggest that this population is experiencing a heightened risk of becoming victims of violence and abuse. One recent study found that more than 70 percent of women with develop- mental disabilities are sexually assaulted in their lifetime, which represents a 50 percent higher rate than the rest of the population (Sobsey and Doe 1991). Generally speaking, a person with developmental disabilities is anyone who has a mental impairment that mani- fested itself before the person attained age twenty-two, is likely to continue indefinitely, and results in substantial functional limitations in three or more major life activities (e.g., self-care, Ian- guage, learning, mobility, capacity for independent living). The major cate- gories of developmental disabilities are autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and mental retardation. Such persons are also referred to as mentally retarded, intellectually handicapped, develop- mentally delayed, or severely learning disabled. They are estimated to make up 3 to 5 percent of the U.S. population (La Plante and Carlson 1996). High Crime Victimization of Persons with Disabilities While the scientific evidence is scanty, it is important and consistent. Studies from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Great Britain consistently confirm high rates of violence and abuse in the lives of per- sons with disabilities. Sobsey and his colleagues reviewed the available litera- ture and concluded that the best conser- vative estimate is that people with developmental disabilities are four to ten times more likely to be victims of crimes than are people without disabilities (Sob- sey, Lucardie, and Mansell 1995). The Australian Bureau of Statistics administered an appropriately modified version of their Victims of Crime survey to a sample of intellectually handi- capped adults and found that differences in victimization rates were most pro- nounced for the crimes of assault (2.9 times higher), sexual assault (10.7 times higher), and robbery (12.7 tirnes higher). Only auto theft was lower for the group with disabilities and that was likely due to the fact that few had cars to be stolen. This study also found extremely low reporting rates: 40 percent of the crimes against people with mild mental retarda- tion went unreported to the police, and 71 percent of those against people with severe mental retardation went unreport- ed (Wilson and Brewer 1992). Certain economic crimes are also likely to occur more often. For example, many individuals with mental retardation rely on state and federal benefit pay- ments to support themselves. Frequently, these payments are forwarded through third parties. A study by the Social Secu- rity Administration found that there were problems in 20 percent of the cases, where appointees had been accused of murder, larceny, and slave trading, in which beneficiaries were being sold from payee to payee (Luckasson 1992). Moreover, studies have shown that there is a high probability of repeat vic- timization. Sobsey and Doe found that 83 percent of women with intellectual disabilities in their sample had been sex- ually assaulted and that of those nearly 50 percent had been sexually assaulted ten or more times. Revictimization is fre- quent because a high percentage of per- petrators are care providers or family members, and certain disabilities can prevent a victim from verbally reporting, running from, or fighting the attacker (Sobsey and Doe 1991). In a study for the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, Scott B. Crosse, Elyse Kaye, and Alexander C. Ratnofsky (1993) found that children with disabili- ties were 2.1 times as likely to endure criminal physical abuse and 1.8 times more likely to experience sexual abuse than children without disabilities (Crosse, et al., 1993). Some authors sug- gest that children with disabilities exhibit Human Rights Winter2000

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