People with disabilities face a much higher rate of violent crime than people without disabilities, a new federal report finds.
The rate of violent victimization against people with disabilities was almost 4 times the rate for those without disabilities during 2017 to 2019, the period studied, according to statistics from the U.S. Justice Department.
Persons with disabilities were victims of 26% of all nonfatal violent crime, while accounting for 12% of the population.
One in three robbery victims had at least one disability, and people with cognitive disabilities had the highest rate of violent victimization, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an arm of the Justice Department.
The report also found that people with disabilities who are rape victims are much less likely to seek help from law enforcement. Nineteen percent of rapes or sexual assaults against people with disabilities were reported to police, compared to 36% of those against persons without disabilities.
For women with disabilities, the rate of violent victimization was 49.4 per 1,000 people, compared to 11.3 per 1,000 females without disabilities.
People with cognitive disabilities had the highest rate of violent victimization among the types of disabilities measured.
Researchers compiled the findings through an annual National Crime Victimization Survey carried out by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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