Report: People with disabilities four times more likely to be crime victims

From the [UK] Guardian:

Urgent action is needed if a “hidden catastrophe” of violence and hostility towards disabled people is to be tackled, says a damning report today from the [UK] Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

The report paints a bleak picture of disabled people’s experience of physical and verbal abuse and reinforces persistent warnings from disability campaigners that the problem has not been taken seriously enough.

… “Violence and hostility can be a daily experience … so much so that many disabled people begin to accept it as a part of everyday life,” the report says. “Disabled people – including those who have not experienced such behaviors directly – are all too often forced to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid it, thereby limiting their own lives.

Among the report’s conclusions:

• Conviction rates are low for crimes against people with disabilities;
• Recorded incidents do not reflect the true scale of the problem because people with disabilities are fearful of reporting abuse; and
• Harassment is forcing people into isolation.

The report, ‘Promoting the safety and security of disabled people,” is here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm and is filed under criminal justice, cultural attitudes, human rights, intellectual/developmental disabilities, mental health, violence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.