Disability Justice

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Six Facts About

People with Disabilities and Violence

People with disabilities have a higher lifetime prevalence of experiencing abuse than people without disabilities.

People with disabilities experience violent crime at twice the rate of people without disabilities.

People with disabilities are three times as likely to be sexually assaulted as their peers without disabilities.

In 2008, intimate partners perpetrated 27% of violent crime against women with disabilities and 1.1% of crime against men with disabilities.

Police are less likely to respond to reported violence against victims with disabilities than they are to report violence against victims without disabilities. Police respond to 90% of reports by victims without disabilities and 77% of reports by victims with disabilities.

A survey conducted by the Spectrum Institute of Disability and Abuse Project found that 70% of respondents with disabilities experience some form of abuse by an intimate partner, family member, caregiver, acquaintance, or stranger. Of those…

*87.2% experienced verbal/emotional abuse

*50.6% experienced physical abuse

*41.6% experienced sexual abuse

*37.4% experienced neglect

*31.5% experienced financial abuse

*37.3% reported the abuse to law enforcement

*Alleged perpetrators were arrested in 10% of abuse cases reported to law enforcement.

NCADV | National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (2018). Retrieved 6 July 2022, from https://ncadv.org/blog/posts/domestic-violence-and-people-with-disabilities

What

Work Are We Doing?

At ACESDV, we have made it a priority to focus on this population to provide better resources and education for survivors and advocates alike. We are currently working with survivors of disabilities through the Office of Violence Against Women grant, which allows us to better support, train, and advocate for this community. We have also partnered with local organization Ability360 to provide specific training around this initiative to all community partners.

Additionally, we receive funding through the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council to provide education to sexual violence advocates, public fiduciaries, legal service providers, group homes, day treatment centers, independent living centers, community-based disability advocacy organizations, and long-term care facilities. Training to these organizations has been limited in the past, due to lack of existing knowledge and education. Our goal is to increase knowledge around sexual abuse among providers to prevent future abuse and retraumatization among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout Arizona.

Resources

For Sexual Assault Survivors with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

For Domestic Violence Survivors with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

To request a specific training in this area, click here