Special Population Victims
• Assess mental and physical disabilities victimization and the system responses.
Definitions
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2015) of the U.S. population 12 and older who were not institutionalized, 14 percent were disabled, and of those, 42 percent were elderly. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (2008), a person with a disability has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity.
Disabilities are most often classified according to six areas of potential limitations:
• Hearing—is deaf or has serious difficulty hearing • Vision—is blind or has serious difficulty seeing, even with corrective lenses • Cognitive—has serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition
• Ambulatory—has an impairment or unsteady gait that makes it impossible or impractical to walk or climb
• Self-care—has difficulty completing normal necessary daily routines such as dressing or bathing
• Independent living—has a physical, mental, or emotional condition that impedes tasks such as visiting a doctor or shopping on one’s own
Disabled people experience a unique type of discrimination called ableism. Ableism is the social preference of a normal body and mind over those who are different. Disabled people often experience a world in which their differences limit their ability to function, and they experience social attitudes and norms that discriminate and act in a negative way toward them (Friedman & Owens, 2017). Structural limitations, which are a type of discrimination and thus a type of victimization, include limiting access to buildings, restrooms, streets and sidewalks, transportation, routine medical care, and education. Ableism can impact the treatment of disabled victims and offenders by law enforcement, social services, protective services, as well the courts and correlational system (Proctor, 2011).
The disabled can make easy targets for victimization because of their perceived weakness and is especially true for those with a cognitive disability. In addition, they can face structural obstacles, like inaccessible buildings, which increase their struggle to live like everyone else. Image: Man sitting in a wheelchair. Authored by: Amanda Mills. Source: https://pixnio.com/people/male-men/seated-in-his-wheelchair- and-was-in-the-process-of-exiting-building. License: CC-0
Statistics
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (Harrell, 2017), disabled people were 2.5 times more likely than the general population to become victims of crime , with one in five people targeted because of their disability. Those over age 65 were excluded from this study because being elderly increases the odds of victimization, as discussed in the module “Victimized Children and Elderly”. Of the six potential limitation categories listed previously, those with cognitive disabilities were the most likely to be victimized, including for economic crimes and sexual assault, while those with hearing disabilities had the lowest victimization rate. According to the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC, n.d.), those with cognitive disabilities are between four and ten times more likely to experience victimization than those who are not cognitively disabled.
According to Harrell (2017), 40 percent of disabled victims knew their offenders compared to only about 32 percent of nondisabled victims. According to the OVC (n.d.), in their survey of women with disabilities, 56 percent reported being abused, and of those, 87 percent were physically abused and 66 percent said they were sexually abused. Most (74 percent) said their abuse was ongoing, and 55 percent said there had been several abusers over the course of their lives. Although pervasive abuse was clearly occurring among the women in this study, only 33 percent sought help.
Brown, Demyan, and Agha (2014) discussed how women with disabilities experience more severe sexual assault by more perpetrators over a longer period of time compared to nondisabled women. They also point out that while there is little research on sexual assault of disabled men, their levels of victimization might be even higher than that of women. Also, similar to elderly victims, the disabled might also be denied access to adaptive equipment or withholding of medication or food as a form of abuse or neglect.
Response
As stated earlier, according to the OVC (n.d.), only 33 percent of disabled victims seek help. Like other types of victimization, many victims know their perpetrators, including family members and professional caregivers in the home or in facilities. This fact reduces the likelihood of reporting a crime. Disabled victims have similar reasons for not reporting, including embarrassment, fear of not being believed, and shame around being a victim. They also are concerned that their disability will be used against them by law enforcement and protection services. Specifically, victims worry that agencies will use their disability to ignore their victimization or that reporting will lead to them being institutionalized (Brown, Demyan, & Agha, 2014). Like the elderly, they might depend on the perpetrator for their survival and access to the outside world, thus limiting their ability to report the crime as well as the potential for retaliation by their caregiver if they report abuse. They might have
limited knowledge of available support services, and their voices can be easily silenced and ignored.
There is quite a bit of research on disabled victims’ negative treatment by law enforcement when victimization is reported. This research supports the idea that persons with disabilities have fears around reporting. One recent example is the case of Charles Kinsey, an African American mental health therapist who worked at a group home in Miami, Florida. Kinsey was trying to find a 23-year-old patient who had wandered off from the group home. SWAT was looking for a suicidal man when they came upon Kinsey and the patient. Kinsey laid on the ground on his back with his hands up, and the 23-year-old sat on the ground holding his toy truck. As Kinsey tried to tell the officers that his client could not understand the instructions to lie on the ground with his hands up, one of the officers shot three rounds at the unarmed pair, striking Kinsey in the leg. Kinsey stated the police rolled him onto his back, handcuffed him, and left him bleeding without assistance for 20 minutes. Cell phone video and images support Kinsey’s story. Unlike Kinsey’s patient, who was not able to clearly communicate and interact with law enforcement, Kinsey did communicate but was shot. This example demonstrates how much more difficult it is for some disabled to interact with law enforcement effectively, and it demonstrates why laws and training are critical for law enforcement. The officer who shot Kinsey was arrested and charged with attempted manslaughter and negligence but was acquitted. Events like this further the belief among the disabled community that law enforcement may not understand the situations fully and raise fears that they may not act appropriately.
As pointed out by Perlin and Lynch (2016), it is only recently that best practice programs have been created to train police on how to deal properly with disabled individuals, especially those with cognitive disability and mental health issues. Historically, police interactions could escalate quickly because of a lack of understanding of mental illness and cognitive impairment and how to deal with mentally disabled individuals. Disabled individuals are more likely to experience humiliation and escalated use of force, which may not be necessary and can lead to the use of deadly force. Individuals with disabilities’ interactions with law enforcement can leave them feeling unheard, unprotected, and often in jail. Crisis intervention training is a new potential best practice around police response. This training, according to Perlin and Lynch (2016), has seen a dramatic shift in issues between law enforcement and cognitively impaired and mentally ill individuals, reducing arrests for “nuisance crimes” and other issues associated with this population.
Law enforcement agencies work with a variety of people with disabilities, including those who are homeless. Homeless people, especially those with disabilities, are much more likely to be victims of crime. The intersection of homelessness, disability, and gender increases the likelihood of victimization. Image: A beggar. Authored by: Mattes. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bettler.JPG. License: CC-0
Being part of the criminal justice system is also problematic for the disabled. Disabled offenders—including the homeless, beggars, and those committing minor crimes as well as serious crimes—who end up in jail are more likely to experience victimization while in jail and prison. As pointed out by Petersilia (2001), inmates with disabilities were more likely to be victims of abuse and assault while in detention compared to other inmates. In addition, the disabled might need accommodations, which can lead to isolation within the facility. This isolation
might exacerbate mental health issues and could increase the potential for the disabled to be victimized by fellow inmates and staff.
The Joint Statement by the National Council on Disability et al. (2007) points out that advocates and social services are behind on helping the disabled, including gaps in their knowledge of the many forms of discrimination against the disabled and awareness of access fo shelters, services, and housing that are capable of working with the disabled. For example, advocates may not be aware that the Fair Housing Act (as amended in 1988) covers temporary housing for disabled crime victims. Many advocates who do not often work with disabled victims are also not aware of community agencies that might help, limiting their ability to refer victims to services. These gaps in awareness of rights and services for the disabled can lead to victims not trusting that they will get help and a reluctance to report victimization. This lack of trust and reluctance to report could lead to further victimization.