Techniques     Overview Articles    Sexual Trauma    Reviews    Trauma    Staff Issues

A Question of Abuse

This article, which originally appeared in the April/May/June 1998 issue (Volume 1-Number 2) of Mental Health Aspects of Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD), is reprinted here by permission of the publisher. MH/DD can be found on the web at http://www.mhaspectsofdd.com.

A QUESTION OF ABUSE: TALKING WITH PERSONS WHO HAVE MR/DD ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH VICTIMIZATION

PART I

Nancy Razza, Ph.D.

A growing body of research indicates that children and adults with mental retardation are more likely than individuals without disabilities to experience sexual abuse. In a recent article by Mansell et al,2 the authors cite the results of a large-scale study of 2,845 sexually abused children. Of these abused children, 6.2% had MR/DD; however of the 880 non-abused children in the control group, only 1.3% had MR/DD. This study showed, that the abused children were nearly five times as likely to have MR/DD.5 Similarly, recent research by Fury1 indicates that women with MR/DD experience higher rates of sexual victimization than non-handicapped women. Given that sexual abuse is a reality in the lives of many people with MR/DD, and for women in particular, it is not surprising that in addition to the referrals we receive specifically for abuse-related treatment, we find many cases of abuse "hidden" in referrals for other problems. ...More