People with disabilities are victims of violent crimes, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and exploitation at much higher rates than their peers without disabilities. The United States Department of Justice reports that the rate of violent crimes against people with disabilities was more than twice the rate experienced by people without disabilities.
While each situation is unique, most violent crimes occur because people with disabilities are viewed as “easy targets” due to an assumption that they are less capable of defending themselves physically. People with developmental disabilities are at particular risk because their cognitive abilities and social skills may be compromised, making them more susceptible to predators.
According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crimes, many victim assistance agencies report that they rarely serve crime victims with disabilities, not because criminal acts don’t occur, but because many people with disabilities are often reluctant to report acts of physical aggression, domestic violence, sexual assault, and other violent crimes.1 Despite the prevalence of abuse among people with disabilities, more than half of victims never seek assistance from law enforcement. The most common reasons that people gave for not reporting a crime to authorities:
- Fear of reprisal.
- Fear of getting an offender into trouble and, as a result, jeopardizing their own living arrangements or personal support.
- Belief that the police would not or could not help.
- Assumption that the crime wasn’t important enough to report.
- Perception that the victim would not be believed.2
For more information and resources on this topic, see “Working With People With Developmental Disabilities As Victims“.
- S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, Serving Crime Victims with Disabilities, n.d., https://ovc.ojp.gov/.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization of Persons with Disabilities, 2009–2019, U.S. Department of Justice, 2021, https://bjs.ojp.gov/.
