News

Disabled Children are at an Increased Risk of Becoming Victims of Violence

	Nora Groce, Associate Professor in the Global Health Division, chairs the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) study showing disabled children are targeted by abusers who view them as easy victims.

Disabled children are finding themselves at an increased risk of becoming victims of violence, targeted by abusers who view them as easy victims, according to a study by The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The study found that the most common form of violence against disabled children is physical violence and that children with intellectual impairments are the most “at risk” for becoming victims of violence over the course of their lives. Physical violence includes the bullying and beating of disabled children at home, school, in the workplace, and in institutions. The most severe form of abuse against disabled children was found to be infanticide and mercy killings, where disabled children are killed either immediately upon birth or at some point, even years, after birth. The rational for the murder is either the belief that the child is evil, will bring misfortune to the family or the community, or the belief that the child is suffering or will suffer and would be better off not living.

Nora E. Groce, associate professor in the Global Health Division (GHD) at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), chaired the UNICEF's Thematic Group on Violence against Disabled Children which conducted the study. “The hope of the study is to open dialogue and educate the public about the abuse of disabled children,” said Groce. She elaborated that not only does the public require education, but the police, doctors, judges and public health workers would benefit from professional training and awareness of the increasingly growing victimization. Codes of conduct, improved policies on all levels, better laws, and enforcing the laws that are available could reduce the abuse of disabled children.

The Thematic Group also found that there is an on-going feedback loop of sexual abuse/mental health problems/institutionalization or stigmatization within the community/and subsequent sexual abuse within the institutional setting or in the community. The victimization feedback loop must be addressed as both a cause and consequence of mental illness. “People who should have been keenly aware, have overlooked the links between sexual abuse and mental health,” commented Groce, “It has been treated on an individual case level, instead of as a larger social issue.”

The study found that while all children are at risk of becoming victims of violence, disabled children are at an increased risk because of stigma, negative traditional beliefs and ignorance. Limited educational opportunities, lack of social support and little participation in the community isolates disabled children and their families. The study concluded that disabled children must be included in all programs aimed at ending the abuse of children. Two hundred million children, who make up 10% of the world's young people population, are born with a disability or become disabled before age 19.

Corrie Paeglow, M.P.H. ’06, served as research assistant on the study.