Victims with Disabilities: Collaborative, Multidiciplinary Frist Response - Training Guide

This training DVD provides a specific set of guidelines for first responders (e.g., law enforcement officers, paramedics, victim advocates, forensic interviewers) who have been called to the scene of a crime in which the victim has a disability. It is designed to help these professionals hone their ability to work with individuals who present specific challenges to a successful first response. Developed under the guidance of a national advisory board, this DVD provides guidelines for interact-ing with both adults and children, and places special emphasis on crime victims who have communica-tion and/or intellectual disabilities. Intellectual disabilities, which involve the mental process of knowing, include disabilities such as mental retardation and autism. [Note: Despite the fact that the term retarda-tion is considered pejorative by many in the disability community, this term remains current in diagnostic nomenclature and is therefore used in this guide.] Communication disabilities, which have to do with physical involvements that interfere with a person’s ability to convey information and ideas, include dis-abilities associated with speech production (e.g., cerebral palsy, stroke).Crime rates that involve crimes against children and adults with disabilities far exceed rates of crime against individuals who do not have disabilities. Research published in 2001 found that crimes against chil-dren with disabilities occur at 3.4 times the rate of children who do not have disabilities (Sullivan, P.M., and Knutson, J.F. "Maltreatment and Disabilities: A Population-Based Epidemiological Study." Child Abuse and Neglect 2000. 24(10):1257–1273). Estimates of maltreatment of adults with disabilities range from 4 to10 times the rate for adults without disabilities (Garbarino, J., Brookhouser, P.E., and Authier, K.J. (1987). "Special Children, Special Risks: The Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities.").Although research on the crime victimization of individuals with disabilities is sparse, the findings are consistent that crime rates are much higher within this population. Additionally, individuals who acquire disabilities as a result of crime victimization represent a significant number each year, but public recognition of both of these populations continues to be all but absent.