Intellectual Disability and Criminal Victimisation

• NCJ Number: 177677
• Author(s): C. Wilson; T. Nettelbeck; R. Potter; C. Perry
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 6 pages
• Corporate Author: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice N 60, September 1996

Annotation

The victimization of mentally handicapped persons in Australia was examined, with emphasis on the usefulness of analyzing the factors that affect their vulnerability as the basis for targeted crime prevention strategies that are focused on victims as well as offenders.

Abstract

The analysis revealed that people with an intellectual disability are almost three times more likely than those without a disability to be victims of physical assault, sexual assault, and robbery. In addition, intellectually disabled victims scored significantly below intellectually disabled nonvictims on measures of interpersonal competence. Thus, having a disability was not the main problem. Instead, the main problem was how the person behaved and how that behavior might promote a reaction from an offender. The one characteristic that was notable was the demonstration of anger. Findings indicated the need for training related to interpersonal competence and anger management. Footnote and 6 references