Children with disabilities more likely to experience violence
GENEVA ¦ 12 July 2012 -
Children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to
experience violence than non-disabled children, according to a review
commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published today
in the medical journal The Lancet.
Findings from the
review indicate that children with disabilities are: 3.7 times more
likely than non-disabled children to be victims of any sort of violence;
3.6 times more likely to be victims of physical violence; and 2.9 times
more likely to be victims of sexual violence. Children with disability
associated with mental illness or intellectual impairments appear to be
among the most vulnerable, with 4.6 times the risk of sexual violence
compared with their non-disabled peers.
The review provides
the strongest available evidence on violence against children with
disabilities. The 17 studies included reflect data from 18,374 children
with disabilities from high-income countries - Finland, France, Israel,
Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States - underscoring
the urgent need for high-quality research in low-income and
middle-income countries.
"The results
of this review prove that children with disabilities are
disproportionately vulnerable to violence, and their needs have been
neglected for far too long," notes Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO's Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability. "We
know that specific strategies exist to prevent violence and mitigate
its consequences. We now need to determine if these also work for
children with disabilities. An agenda needs to be set for action".
Factors which
place children with disabilities at higher risk of violence include
stigma, discrimination, and ignorance about disability, as well as a
lack of social support for those who care for them. Placement
of children with disabilities in institutions also increases their
vulnerability to violence. In these settings and elsewhere, children
with communication impairments are hampered in their ability to disclose
abusive experiences.
Certain nurse home
visiting programmes for children at risk of violence and trainings to
improve parenting skills have been shown to work to prevent violence
against non-disabled children. These and other promising measures
outlined in WHO's Preventing child maltreatment and Violence prevention:
the evidence should be implemented for children with disabilities, and
their effectiveness evaluated as a matter of priority.
The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reinforces the
need to protect the rights of children with disabilities and ensure
their full and equal participation in society. This includes avoiding
the adverse experiences resulting from violence in childhood which are
known to have a wide range of detrimental consequences for health and
well-being later in life. When prevention fails, care and support for
children who are victims of violence are vital to their recovery.
The WHO/World Bank World report on disability
outlines what works in improving health and social participation of
children with disabilities and promotes deinstitutionalization. For
children with disabilities who are currently placed away from home,
strengthening their care and protection by tackling institutional
cultures and structures that exacerbate the risk of violence is an
imperative.
"The impact of a
child's disability on their quality of life is very much dependent on
the way other individuals treat them," stresses Dr Mark Bellis, Director
of the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University, a
WHO Collaborating Centre for Violence Prevention, and lead researcher on
the review. "It is the duty of government and civil society to ensure
that such victimization is exposed and prevented."
For more information, please contact:
Tarik Jasarevic, Communications officer, Geneva,
Telephone: +41227915099;
Mobile: +41793676214;
Email: jasarevict@who.int
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