Statistics Canada Article on Violent Victimization of Women with Disabilities

Last week, the Statistics Canada publication Juristat published an article on Violent victimization of women with disabilities, 2014 that shows that persons with a disability were overrepresented as victims of violent crime.

Among the highlights:

• According to the 2014 General Social Survey on Victimization, women with a disability were twice as likely as women who did not have a disability to have been a victim of violent crime. A similar trend was evident among men.
• Women with a disability were nearly twice as likely as women without a disability to have been sexually assaulted in the past 12 months.
• Among victims of violent crime, women with a disability were almost twice as likely as women without one to have been victimized more than once in the 12 months preceding the survey (36% versus 20%).
• The rate of violent victimization among women and men with a cognitive disability or a mental health‑related disability was approximately four times higher than among those who did not have a disability. Among women and men with a sensory or physical disability, the rate of violent victimization was roughly twice as high as among those who did not have a disability.
• Victims of violent crime who had a disability were more likely to make use of victims' services. Six in ten (61%) victims of violent crime who turned to formal support services in 2014 had a disability. Women with a disability were more likely than their male counterparts to contact or use any services.
• Canadians with a disability were more likely to be victimized in their own home, as close to one‑third (30%) of violent incidents against a person with a disability occurred in their private residence (compared to 17% of incidents where the victim did not have a disability).
• Four in ten (40%) Canadians with a disability at the time of the survey were physically and/or sexually abused during their childhood, compared to about one‑quarter (27%) of those who did not have a disability.
• About one‑quarter of women with a cognitive disability (24%) or a mental health‑related disability (26%) were sexually abused by an adult before they were 15 years of age.
• Among victims of spousal violence with a disability, women were more likely than men to have experienced the most serious forms of spousal violence (39% versus 16%), to be physically injured due to the violence (46% versus 29%), to fear for their life (38% versus 14%), and to contact or use formal support services following the violence (71% versus 29%).