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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Crime Against People with Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I write that people with disabilities are victims of violent crime much more often than people without disabilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics does not report separately on autistic victims, but it does note that the victimization rate is especially high among those whose disabilities are cognitive. 

Erika Harrell has a report at the Bureau of Justice Statistics titled "Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009-2015 - Statistical Tables."
In 2015, the rate of violent victimization against persons with disabilities (29.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older) was 2.5 times higher than the rate for persons without disabilities (11.8 per 1,000), which was adjusted to account for the differences between the age distributions for persons with and without disabilities (see Methodology) (figure 1). 1 In every year from 2009 to 2015, the rate of violent victimization against persons with disabilities was at least twice the age-adjusted rate for persons without disabilities. The rate of violent victimization increased from 2011 to 2012 for both persons with and without disabilities. From 2012 to 2015, the rate  emained steady for persons with disabilities and decreased for persons without disabilities.
...
During 2011-15, persons with cognitive disabilities had the highest rates of total violent crime (57.9 per 1,000), serious violent crime (22.3 per 1,000), and simple assault (35.6 per 1,000) among the disability types measured
[emphasis added]