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Californians with IDD are the victims of sexual assault and rape far more frequently than their non-disabled peers. About two out of ten men with IDD and four out of ten women with IDD have been sexually abused at least ten times. Nearly 68% of women with IDD will be sexually abused before their eighteenth birthdays and up to 90% will experience these crimes within their lifetimes.
For the last year NPR reporter Joe Shapiro has been gathering stories from victims with IDD, their families, and their caregivers. NPR began sharing these heartbreaking stories on January 8th in a special series called “Abused and Betrayed.” The series runs through January 18th on the show All Things Considered. You can also listen to them online at https://www.npr.org/series/575502633/abused-and-betrayed. Though these stories may be hard for some of us to hear they are doing the crucial work of bringing light to a situation that must not be tolerated.
The Arc of California along with the Arc National Center on Criminal Justice & Disability are committed to addressing the devastating reality of sexual abuse within our community. If you suspect that you, or someone you care for with an IDD is being sexually abused there are tools available to help you report the crime and end the cycle of abuse.
The Arc National Center on Criminal Justice & Disability offers information in a variety of formats to help healthcare providers assist their patients with IDD to explain what they have been through. There are tips for having a conversation about sexual abuse: http://www.thearc.org/document.doc?id=5836, videos modeling what these conversations might look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3gFXB8yeLU&feature=youtu.be
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyzhysokfBg&feature=youtu.be,
and training tools and communications charts in both English and Spanish: http://www.thearc.org/what-we-do/programs-and-services/national-initiatives/nccjd/talk-about-sexual-violence/training-tools.
The Disability & Abuse Project: http://disabilityandabuse.org/resources/index.htm has very detailed information that can walk you through reporting the crime, help law enforcement professionals and first responders better equip themselves to respond to these crimes, and links that can point you to resources to help minimize the psychological trauma that the victim will carry forward into the rest of their life.
Patricia (from left), Natalie and their mother, Rosemary, sit in their home in Northern California. Natalie, a woman with an intellectual disability, is unable to speak. She couldn’t explain what was wrong and doctors couldn’t figure out why she was in pain.