SAN FRANCISCO -- Sexual predators are more likely to inflict excessive injury on women with physical disabilities than on those with mental or developmental problems, investigators reported here.
MedPage Today Action Points
- Explain to interested patients the risks of sexual assault because of the belief among predators that women with disabilities are easier targets.
- This study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20 -- Sexual predators are more likely to inflict excessive injury on women with physical disabilities than on than those with mental or developmental problems, investigators reported here.
A study that included more than 2,000 women found that sex assault against women with physical disabilities tended to be more coercive and cause more injuries than attacks against women with mental or developmental disabilities.
In the study, presented at the American Psychological Association meeting, researchers examined reports from a sexual assault clinic in Toronto and compared the 1,091 women with disabilities with 1,120 women without disabilities.
About 66.7% of the 81 women with physical disabilities, which could include motor dysfunction, visual impairment, or hearing impairment, suffered physical trauma during the assault, compared with 63.8% of the women without disabilities; 63.3% of the women with a psychiatric disability, and 52.2% of the women with cognitive disability of developmental delay (P<0.001).
