National Reports: First Study on Crime Against People with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics has released the first special report looking at the prevalence of violent crime against people with disabilities.  

Here are some of the findings from the report:

Persons age 12 or older with disabilities experienced 

approximately 716,000 nonfatal violent crimes and 2.3 mil- 

lion property crimes in 2007 as measured by the National 

Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Nonfatal violent 

crimes include rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated 

assault, and simple assault. Property crimes include 

household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft.* 

About one third (34%) of the crimes against persons with or 

without a disability in 2007 were serious violent crimes 

(rape/sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated assault). Per- 

sons with disabilities were victims of about 47,000 rapes, 

79,000 robberies, 114,000 aggravated assaults, and 

476,000 simple assaults. 

• Age-adjusted rate of nonfatal violent crime against 

persons with disabilities was 1.5 times higher than the 

rate for persons without disabilities. 

• Persons with a disability had an age-adjusted rate of 

rape or sexual assault that was more than twice the rate 

for persons without a disability. 

• Females with a disability had a higher victimization rate 

than males with a disability; males had a higher rate 

than females among those without a disability. 

• Persons with a cognitive functioning disability had a 

higher risk of violent victimization than persons with any 

other type of disability. 

• Persons with more than one type of disability accounted 

for about 56% of all violent crime victimizations against 

those with any disability.

Read the report here: Bureau of Statistics.