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70% of developmentally disabled people who live in group homes have been assaulted, physically or sexually abused, or neglected
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The Victimization of Disabled People in the United States (Data & Statistics)
by K.G. July 31, 2024​
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Overall Victimization Sexual Assaults and Harassment Victimized as a Child​
Victimized by Group Homes Victimized by Police Victimized by the Education System
Victimized by the Healthcare System​
Overall Victimization
Disabled people are violently victimized at almost four times the rate of non-disabled people.
-“Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009-2014 - Statistical Tables” 2016. U.S. Department of Justice.
-“Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009–2019 – Statistical Tables” 2021. U.S. Department of Justice.
People with developmental disabilities are four to ten times more likely to be the victim of a crime, and more likely to be victimized repeatedly by the same person.
-Office for Victims of Crime. US Department of Justice.
Disabled Hispanics and Latinos and people who are two or more races have the highest victimization rates, followed by Black people.
-“Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009–2019 – Statistical Tables” 2021. U.S. Department of Justice.
Sexual Assaults and Harassment
Researchers analyzed data from the National Survey of Family Growth from 2011 to 2017 and found that disabled women experienced sexual violence at almost twice the rate as nondisabled women.
-Ledingham, Wright, and Mitra “Sexual Violence Against Women with Disabilities: Experiences with Force and Lifetime Risk” 2022. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
42.1% of women with multiple disabilities experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
-Ledingham, Wright, and Mitra “Sexual Violence Against Women with Disabilities: Experiences with Force and Lifetime Risk” 2022. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
People with intellectual disabilities are sexually assaulted at seven times the rate as people without intellectual disabilities.
-Unpublished data on sex crimes from the U.S. Department of Justice obtained by NPR. 2018.
Victimized as a Child
Disabled children are over three times more likely to be abused or victimized than non-disabled children.
-Child Welfare Information Gateway. “The risk and prevention of maltreatment of children with disabilities” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau. 2018.
A 2016 study found that almost 89% of autistic participants had been victimized as a child.
-“Sexual Victimization in Autistic People” The Autism Research Institute. 2022.
Between 40% and 50% of autistic adults report being sexually abused as a child.
-“Sexual Victimization in Autistic People” The Autism Research Institute. 2022.
Autistic children, especially those who are non-speaking, are even more prone to being sexually assaulted. They are up to four times as likely to be sexually abused.
-Brown, Peña, and Rankin “Unwanted sexual contact: Students with autism and other disabilities at greater risk” 2017.
Victimized by Group Homes
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According to the Disability and Abuse Project, 70% of developmentally disabled people who live in group homes have been assaulted, physically or sexually abused, or neglected.
50% experienced physical abuse and 41% experienced sexual abuse.
-Baladerian, Coleman, Thomas, and Stream “Abuse of People with Disabilities: Victims and Their Families Speak Out” Spectrum Institute from Disability and Abuse Project. 2013.
Victimized by Police
People with mental illness are ten times more likely to experience excessive use of force by Law enforcement.
-Laniyonu and Goff. “Measuring disparities in police use of force and injury among persons with serious mental illness” BMC Psychiatry. 2021.
Disabled people make up between 30% to 50% of the people subjected to police use of force.
-“Policing and Racial Injustice: A Disability Rights Perspective Impacts and Solutions” Ohio Disability Rights Law and Policy Center, Inc. 2020.
Disabled people make up 50% of the people killed by police.
-Vilissa Thompson “Understanding the Policing of Black, Disabled Bodies” February 10, 2021. Center for American Progress. 2021.
-“Policing and Racial Injustice: A Disability Rights Perspective Impacts and Solutions” Ohio Disability Rights Law and Policy Center, Inc. 2020.
-“Media Missing the Story: Half of All Recent High-Profile Police-Related Killings Are People with Disabilities” The Ruderman Family Foundation. 2016.
Between 20% and 25% of fatal encounters with police involve someone with a mental illness.
-Investigation by Insider “called 911 for assistance. Then police used lethal force” 2022.
-Shadravan, Edwards, and Vinson “Dying at the Intersections: Police-Involved Killings of Black People with Mental Illness” 2021.
Police are twice as likely to arrest someone with an obvious mental illness.
-“Eliminating the criminalization of disabilities” The Opportunity Agenda. 2023.
Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous disabled and mentally ill people have the highest risk of facing police brutality, abuse of power, harassment, and death at the hands of law enforcement.
-Shadravan, Edwards, and Vinson “Dying at the Intersections: Police-Involved Killings of Black People with Mental Illness” 2021.
-“Policing and Racial Injustice: A Disability Rights Perspective Impacts and Solutions” Ohio Disability Rights Law and Policy Center, Inc. 2020.
Over 50% of disabled Black people have been arrested by the time they are 28, which is twice as much as disabled white people.
-McCauley, 2017. “The Cumulative Probability of Arrest by Age 28 Years in the United States by Disability Status, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender” American Journal of Public Health.
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Data on the intersectionality of race and disability are limited when it comes to interactions with police and the justice system. Databases track race and disability independently of one another.
-Vilissa Thompson “Understanding the Policing of Black, Disabled Bodies” February 10, 2021. Center for American Progress. 2021.
-Lily Robin and Evelyn F. McCoy “The Criminal Legal System Fails to Address Black Disabled People’s Intersectional Identities” 2022. Urban Wire.
Victimized by the Educational System
71% of students who are restrained at school are disabled, despite making up between 12% to 14% of the student population.
-“Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009–2019 – Statistical Tables” 2021. U.S. Department of Justice.
-“Restraint and Seclusion by the Numbers” Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. 2019.
66% of students who are put into seclusion are disabled.
-“School Climate and Safety” Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. Civil Rights Data Collection 2015-2016.
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27% of students who are restrained or secluded at school are Black, despite Black people only making up 15% of the school population.
-“Restraint and Seclusion by the Numbers” Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. 2019.
​Victimized by the Healthcare System
A 2019 review of 30 studies between 1994 and 2016 found that “mainstream health professionals" had stigmatizing attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities.
-Pelleboer-Gunnink, Van Oorsouw, Weeghel, and Embregts “Mainstream health professionals' stigmatising attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review” Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. 2017.
A 2020 study examining explicit and implicit attitudes towards disabled people looked at data from 25,006 healthcare providers and found that the overwhelming majority prefer non-disabled people.
-Van Puymbrouck, Friedman, Feldner. “Explicit and implicit disability attitudes of healthcare providers” Rehabilitation Psychology. 2020
A 2021 survey of 714 practicing physicians in the US found that 43.5% did not welcome disabled people in their practices.
-Iezzoni, Rao, Ressalam, Bolcic-Jankovic, Agaronnik, Donelan, Lagu, Campbell “Physicians' Perceptions of People with Disability and Their Health Care” Health Affairs (Journal). 2021.
This was corroborated by 2022 focus groups conducted by Northwestern University, the University of Massachusetts, and Harvard Medical School.
-Kristin Samuelson “Widespread bias, discrimination directed toward people with disabilities who seek health care” October 3, 2022. Northwestern University.
-Van Puymbrouck, Friedman, and Feldner. "Explicit and implicit disability attitudes of healthcare providers. Rehabilitation Psychology" 2020.
The majority of physicians in all 3 studies expressed ignorance on how to accommodate disabled people and provide equal quality of care.
-Van Puymbrouck, Friedman, and Feldner. "Explicit and implicit disability attitudes of healthcare providers. Rehabilitation Psychology" 2020.
-Iezzoni, Rao, Ressalam, Bolcic-Jankovic, Agaronnik, Donelan, Lagu, Campbell “Physicians' Perceptions of People with Disability and Their Health Care” Health Affairs (Journal). 2021.
-Kristin Samuelson “Widespread bias, discrimination directed toward people with disabilities who seek health care” October 3, 2022. Northwestern University.
White patients receive more patient-centered care, are more likely to receive appropriate medication , and have better overall quality of treatment than non-white patients.
-2018 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Department of Health and Human Services.
Black patients are more likely to be seen as hostile and aggressive in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Black people are more likely to be restrained in emergency departments and nursing homes.
-Shadravan, Edwards, and Vinson “Dying at the Intersections: Police-Involved Killings of Black People with Mental Illness” 2021.
-“Policing and Racial Injustice: A Disability Rights Perspective Impacts and Solutions” Ohio Disability Rights Law and Policy Center, Inc. 2020.