Types of abuses and
Justice Denied Resources
Abuse and exploitation can take many forms. Explore these categories and find additional resources by clicking on the sections below.
There are many resources available to help you learn more about issues that are relevant to disability justice. Here are a few places to begin:
- Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities
- Parallels in Time
- Partners in Time: Award-winning online course that focuses on the history of society’s treatment of people with disabilities from ancient times through the present, the way that they lived, learned and worked throughout the history and growth of the Disability Rights Movement
- The Arc: People with Intellectual Disabilities in the Justice System
- American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
- American Bar Association, Commission on Disability Rights
- One Voice One Vote, League of Women Voters Minnesota
Women with disabilities report experiencing sexual violence at nearly twice the rate of nondisabled women, with the highest risk among those with cognitive or multiple disabilities, who are also significantly more likely to experience force at first intercourse. Overall, the data show a severe and disproportionate risk of violence for people with disabilities.1
1 Frawley, P., & Fitzsimons, N. M. (2026). Flipping the story on disability and violence, people with intellectual disability, and allies… leading the change. ROUTLEDGE.
Words can cause as much lasting harm as physical abuse. Verbal abuse can be used to intimidate, threaten, or belittle and is intended to cause emotional pain. Verbal and psychological abuse can include everything from yelling and name-calling to direct threats of physical harm or threats against people or things that are important to the other person as a way of instilling fear or gaining power and control.
Like other forms of abuse, verbal abuse often goes unreported. Adding to the challenge, verbal abuse is often unrecognized because attempts to blame, shame, humiliate, intimidate, or threaten are often disregarded as “jokes”; the recipient is told they misunderstood the person’s intentions or is called “too sensitive.” As a result, verbal abuse can be difficult to prove.
In many cases, verbal abuse sets the stage for physical abuse. As one man with disabilities explained, “He and I got into the verbal altercation … so he thought he would put me in my place by throwing me up on the back of the chair, then letting me hang there. I’m on a ventilator… I had already been off for an hour and a half, and I was getting rather winded… So he just left me hanging there, kept screaming at me, and I had to apologize to him … hardly able to breathe … He really scared the hell out of me.”
People with disabilities are also particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Exploitation can take many forms, including:
Sexual exploitation. For example, women with disabilities are forced into prostitution. Trafficking is becoming an enormous issue among young teens.
Financial exploitation. For example, individuals with disabilities may be paid less than other workers or have personal funds removed from their accounts without their permission. Although the practice of peonage, or “involuntary servitude,” was abolished in 1865 under the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, people with disabilities continue to be forced to work under dangerous, sometimes inhumane circumstances at little or no pay. This is often disguised as a lower wage offset by “room and board.”
Financial fraud is one of the fastest growing forms of abuse targeting seniors and adults with disabilities. According to the National Adult Protective Services Association, 1 in 20 older adults reports some form of financial mistreatment. However, it occurs much more frequently than it is reported. In fact, some studies estimate that only 1 in 44 cases of financial exploitation are reported to law enforcement officials.
There are two broad categories of financial abuse. Financial exploitation is perpetrated by someone who is known to the individual, such as a family member, caregiver, or other trusted person who uses their position of trust to gain access to the person’s financial resources. The second type of financial abuse relates to financial scams designed to take advantage of the elderly and adults with disabilities, such as home improvement and lottery schemes.
http://www.napsa-now.org/policy-advocacy/world-elder-abuse-awareness-day/
Entertainment. Being used as a source of entertainment, such as being physically assaulted by a group or being forced to engage in demeaning activities for the amusement of others.
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/.
Physical abuse occurs when another person intentionally injures or inflicts pain on another person. People with disabilities who have been physically abused report being hit, kicked, punched and tripped. Children and adults with disabilities have a unique risk of being restrained in dangerous, often deadly, ways.
Despite federal and state laws that prohibit or severely limit the practice, teachers, caregivers and others in a position of power use restraints as a way of controlling behavior. The U.S. Department of Education reports that over 70,000 students were physically restrained in the nation’s schools during the 2017-2018 school year. Of those, approximately 78% of the students had disabilities, even though students with disabilities represent just 13% of the entire student population.1
People with disabilities experience violent victimization at nearly four times the rate of people without disabilities, and those with cognitive disabilities face rates almost six times higher. Rates of simple assault are more than three times higher for people with disabilities. Violent crimes against people with disabilities are reported to police less often (38%) than crimes against people without disabilities (45%), with even lower reporting for people with cognitive disabilities (36.4%) and multiple disabilities. Strangers account for a smaller share of perpetrators (32% vs. 41%), while other relatives account for a higher share (14.4% vs. 6.5%).2
2 Frawley, P., & Fitzsimons, N. M. (2026). Flipping the story on disability and violence people with intellectual disability and allies… leading the change. ROUTLEDGE.
Individuals with developmental disabilities have a higher risk of experiencing medical and physical neglect. Neglect occurs when a caregiver(s) fails to meet the critical needs of an individual with disabilities. Chronic neglect has long-term adverse effects on an individual’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development and can further compromise the functioning of an individual with developmental disabilities.
Neglect can take many forms. It can occur in private homes, as well as group settings, such as group homes or institutions, in schools, and in workplaces. In many cases, primary caregivers, such as parents, family members, personal care assistants, or staff members, create and maintain situations where neglect occurs. For example, a caregiver can intentionally limit the individual’s food, medication, or access to medical care, thereby placing the person in jeopardy. Common examples of neglect include:
- Not providing adequate food or drink.
- Leaving an individual with disabilities unsupervised or placing the person in a potentially dangerous situation.
- Not providing adequate heat or air conditioning.
- Withholding personal care or medical care.
- Not providing a safe environment for the individual.
- Withholding access to necessary medical equipment, including hearing aids.
