From CNN/WIBW, Associated Press, press release from U.S. Department of Justice:

A study by the Department of Justice has found that people with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to experience nonfatal violent crime.

Within specific groups, the risk of violence was even higher. Women with disabilities were almost twice as likely to be the target of a non-fatal violent crime as their nondisabled counterparts, as were people with disabilities aged 12 to 19 and 35 to 49.

The study, the first of its kind, found that people with cognitive disabilities had a rate of nonfatal violent crime higher than the rates for people with all other kinds of disabilities. (about 28 per 1,000 persons aged 12 or older in 2007).

The study’s authors did not speculate on the reasons for the findings, but noted that nearly one in five of the violent crime victims with a disability believed that they were targeted because of their disability.

Among other findings:

• People with a disability had an age-adjusted rate of rape or sexual assault that was more than twice the rate for people without a disability.
• More than half of violent crimes against people with disabilities were against those with more than one type of disability.

All told, the report tallied about 716,000 nonfatal violent crimes like assault, rape and robbery against Americans with disabilities during the year 2007. This population experienced about 2.3 million property crimes over the same period.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under criminal justice, intellectual/developmental disabilities, law, NOT2BEMISSED. 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.