The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report in July 2017 showing that people with disabilities are at least twice as likely to be victimized by violent crime as people without disabilities.
Disability Scoop, a news Website on developmental disabilities, summarized the findings of the Justice Department report in an article by Shaun Heasley, 7/18/17.
- People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be victims of violent crime, according to new federal data.
- Moreover, this population faced three times the odds of the most serious violent crimes like rape, sexual assault, robbery or aggravated assault.
- Among people with disabilities, the agency found that individuals with cognitive issues were most likely to be targeted.
- In 40 percent of cases, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that individuals with disabilities who were victimized knew the perpetrator compared to just 32 percent of people without disabilities.
- Men and women with disabilities faced similar odds of victimization, according to the data.
- The report indicated that 1 out of 5 crime victims in this population are believed to have been targeted because of their disability.
Most of the statistics presented are based on the noninstitutionalized U.S. residential population, aged 12 and older. The report goes into some detail on the methodology used to collect and interpret the data and the limitations on estimating the rate of crimes against people with disabilities.
Additional estimates in the DOJ report show crime rates against people in different segments of the disability population. Those with cognitive and multiple disabilities were generally more likely to be victimized:
- During 2011-15, persons with cognitive disabilities has the highest rates of total violent crime (57.9 per 1,000), serious violent crime (22.3 per 1,000), and simple assault (35.6 per 1,000) among the disability types measured.
- During 2011-15, while 49% of persons with disabilities had multiple disability types..., an estimated 54% of violence against persons with disabilities occurred against those with multiple disability types.
- Sixty-five percent of rapes or sexual assaults against persons with disabilities were committed against those with multiple disability types, the highest percentage among the crime types examined.
A report released by the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) on 5/21/15 states that:
“VIOLENT
CRIME RATE IN 2013 AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES WAS MORE THAN
DOUBLE THE AGE-ADJUSTED RATE FOR PERSONS WITHOUT DISABILITIES”
Here are excerpts from the report:
These findings are based on BJS’s National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which classifies disabilities according to six limitations: hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care and independent living.
- Persons with cognitive disabilities experienced the highest rate of violent crime (67 per 1,000) among all disability types measured, similar to previous years.
- Serious violent crime—rape or sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault—accounted for a greater percentage of all violent crime against persons with disabilities (39 percent) than persons without disabilities (29 percent). Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of violent crime victims with disabilities believed they were targeted due to their disability.
- About 51 percent of violent crime against persons with disabilities involved victims with multiple disability types in 2013.
- Nearly half (48 percent) of violent crime against persons with disabilities was reported to police in 2013, similar to that reported for persons without disabilities (44 percent). The reasons persons with disabilities did not report the crime to police were because they dealt with it in another way (44 percent), they believed it was not important enough (21 percent), they believed police wouldn’t help (19 percent) or other reasons (38 percent).
- Nonpolice victim services agencies served more violent crime victims with disabilities (12 percent) than violent crime victims without disabilities (8 percent) in 2013.
