Sexual abuse and violence against people with intellectual disability and physical impairments: Characteristics of police‐investigated cases in a Norwegian national sample

Abstract

Background: Although people with disabilities are more exposed to violence and<br/ >sexual abuse, research on the judicial process in such cases is still lacking. This study<br/ >uses crime statistics to describe this phenomenon.<br/ >Method: A national sample from the National Criminal Investigation Service in<br/ >Norway was analysed for the period October 2015 to December 2017.<br/ >Results: The total number of alleged victims was 175, across 74 cases. The majority<br/ >of the victims (71.2%) were females, subjected to a sexual offence. Overall, 30% of<br/ >all cases led to a penal sanction.<br/ >Conclusion: The study shows a preponderance of sexual offences against females<br/ >with disabilities and few cases comprise violence. Relatively, few cases involve vi‐<br/ >olations against children with disabilities. This might suggest an underreporting of<br/ >such criminal acts. The knowledge of potential reasons why violent crime and of‐<br/ >fences against children with disabilities are absent from the data registry needs to<br/ >be strengthened.