Sexual Assault and People with DisabilitiesAn Ongoing Issue

Presented by Stephanie Sanford, JusticeNow ConsultingShelby Grau, KCSDVGary West, KCSDV

Kansas Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence

AGENDA

• Housekeeping• Additional resources and contact information

at end of PowerPoint• Thanks to APRIL for sponsoring this important

conversation

Prevalence of Sexual Violence

• Violence against people with disabilities is a problem of epidemic proportions

• Bureau of Justice Statistics– 2009…1.5 times the rate of violence– 2010…3-4 times the crime rate

• A study of North Carolina women found that women with disabilities were four times more likely to have experienced sexual assault in the past year than women without disabilities

• People with disabilities between the ages of 12-19 and 35-49 reported experiencing violence at nearly twice the rates of people without disabilities in those same age groups. Males with disabilities in this study also experienced higher rates of violence than males without disabilities.

Men With Disabilities

• 13.9% (mwd) vs. 3.7% (mw/od)• Past-year rates (of sexual violence) for men with

disabilities exceeded those for women without disabilities

• “Men with disabilities are at a heightened risk for lifetime and current sexual violence victimization.”

• American Journal of Preventive Medicine, October 2011

• Approximately 90 percent of the sexual violence perpetrators were not strangers to their victims. They may be family members, acquaintances, strangers, institutional personnel, and caregivers. (SafePlace. 2003. Stop the Violence, Break the Silence. Austin, TX.)

Individuals with disabilities experience the highest rate of personal violence of any group in our society today. Yet, this very large segment of the American population is often invisible in the crime statistics.

Abramson, W., Emanuel, E., Gaylord, V., & Hayden, M. (Eds.). (2000). Impact: Feature Issue on Violence Against Women with Developmental or Other Disabilities. Minneapolis, MN

Sexual Assault and Trauma

• What is trauma?– Overwhelms an individual’s ability to use normal

coping mechanisms to adapt to a situation.

– Disrupts an individual’s frame of reference (beliefs about themselves and the world).

– A serious injury or shock to the body, as a result from violence or an accident.

- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company

SA and Trauma

• Effects of a sexual assault or any type of sexual violence can be varied and long-lasting.

• Providing any type of service to an SA survivor involves understanding their needs and understanding how trauma affects their life.

Trauma-Informed Services• Know the history of past and current abuse.– Allows for more holistic and integrated treatment

planning.• Understand the role that violence and victimization plays in

the lives of consumers.• Use that understanding to design service systems that

accommodate the vulnerabilities of trauma survivors and allow services to be delivered in a way that will facilitate participation.

• Not designed to treat symptoms related to sexual or physical abuse.

Adapted from: Harris, M., Fallot, R. (Spring 2001). Using Trauma Theory to Design Service Systems. Jossey-Bass, Number 89, Spring 2001.

Legal Options for Survivors of Sexual Assault

• Civil protection orders• Immigration• Crime victim compensation (in Kansas)• Employment protections (unemployment too,

in most states)• Education and Title IX protections• Name change

Immigrant Survivors

• There are options for immigrant survivors of sexual assault.

• U visa, T visa, VAWA • Legal options also include protection from abuse

orders (restraining order, protective orders, etc.), making police reports, seeking services from sexual assault centers, and more.

• Particular safety concerns when working with immigrant survivors!

Immigrants and SSI

• Certain immigrant survivors may qualify for SSI.

• Must be considered a qualified alien by the US Department of Homeland Security.

• Seven categories in which to qualify, BUT is still difficult for many immigrant survivors to meet even one of these categories.

• Oh, and one additional category….

The First Three Categories

• 1. Lawfully Admitted for Permanent Residence (LAPR) in the U.S., which includes"Amerasian immigrant" as defined in Section 584 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1988, as amended;

• 2. Granted conditional entry under Section 203(a)(7) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as in effect before April 1, 1980;

• 3. Paroled into the U.S. under Section 212(d)(5) of the INA for a period of at least one year;

The Last Four Categories

• 4. Refugee admitted to the U.S. under Section 207 of the INA;

• 5. Granted asylum under Section 208 of the INA;• 6. Deportation is being withheld under Section 243(h)

of the INA, as in effect before April 1, 1997 or removal is being withheld under Section 241(b)(3) of the INA; or,

• 7. Cuban and Haitian entrant" as defined in Section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 or in a status that is to be treated as a "Cuban/ Haitian entrant" for SSI purposes.

The “Additional” Category

• In addition, you can be a “deemed qualified alien” if, under certain circumstances, you, your child or parent were subjected to battery or extreme cruelty by a family member while in the United States.

• http://www.ssa.gov/ssi/spotlights/spot-non-citizens.htm

Sexual Assault in the Aftermath of Disaster

• We know that large-scale disasters lead to sexual assault. SA after Hurricane Katrina was rampant.

• The National Sexual Violence Resource Center has produced a guide for disaster planning. – http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/

Publications_NSVRC_Guides_Sexual-Violence-in-Disasters_A-planning-guide-for-prevention-and-response.pdf

How do you prepare for disaster?

• What can organizations do to prepare for disasters? – Plan, plan again, and plan some more. – “You can never be prepared enough!” should be your

motto. – Does your organization have a plan for a disaster? If so,

does it address pre-disaster, during, and post-disaster? – For CILs, preparation is going to include consumers. – Checklist produced by Gender-Based Violence Global

Technical Support Project RHRC Consortium/JSI Research and Training Institute, June 2004• http://www.rhrc.org/resources/Checklist.pdf

Safety Planning for Sexual Assault Survivors

• Safety planning is often thought of as preventative and in terms of domestic violence.

• May be very different from DV safety planning, depending on the circumstances.

• Additional concerns when survivor has a disability.

Questions to Ask for Safety Planning with SA Survivors

• How do you feel about your safety? Do you feel safe?• Do you have any concerns or needs that I can help you with?

– What have you tried in the past? How did it work?– Would you try it again? If so, why? If not, why?– What would you do differently in the future?

• Do you have a safe place to stay?• Do you have someone you can talk to whom you trust (friend,

family, advocate, therapist, counselor, clergy)?• Ask about access to resources (transportation, finances, health

care, child care, food, clothing, housing, communication, special needs, and children’s needs).

• What can I do to help you?• Do you have concerns about how our services will affect you and

your children’s safety?

What Can We Do?

• As Providers: offer background checks to consumers hiring personal assistants in their homes

• As Providers: provide a safe environment for your employees

• As Providers: reach out to Sexual Assault organizations in your community

• As Providers: be diligent – trust your gut

How we benefit from Collaboration

• Work together to enhance program and policy development (including confidentiality and information sharing).

• Obtain cross systems literature and resources and make them available to staff.

• Develop or support in-service and cross-trainings.

We Need to Make it Happen!

• We have to “roll the roll/walk the walk/sign the

sign/talk the talk”

• Organizational Culture Change

• Finding common ground with our allies is our biggest

strength

• Consumer-centered, survivor-centered

• Our movements are taking the same journey

Resources• Nora J. Baladerian, Ph.D- Available at

norabaladerian.com/books.htm– Interviewing Skills to Use with Abuse Victims with Developmental

Disabilities, 2004– Interviewing and Treatment Skills for Elder Abuse Victims with

Cognitive and/or Communication Impairments, 1998,– FACTS: Forensic Assessment of Consent to Sex. A protocol for

conducting the forensic interview and assessing the individual's responses to questions designed to evaluate his/her understanding of the nature and consequences of the sexual activity that brought the individual to the attention of the criminal justice system. $20.00 for print edition / $10.00 for pdf file to download

• IndependenceFirst Resources- Available at IndependenceFirst.org– Communication Book: For Individuals Who are Victims of Violence– Program and Service Accessibility: A Guide for Serving Victims with

Disabilities (with Video-CC) (2004)

• US Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime-Available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/library/index.html– Victims with Disabilities: The Forensic Interview-

Techniques for Interviewing Victims with Communication and/or Cognitive Disabilities- DVD and Guidebook Package (January 2012)

– Victims with Disabilities: Collaborative, Multidisciplinary First Response: Techniques for First Responders Called to Help Crime Victims Who Have Disabilities (January 2011)

• Representing Survivors Experiencing Trauma and Other Mental Health Challenges: A Handbook for Attorneys, co-authored by Mary Malefyt Seighman, Olga Trujillo, and Erika Sussman- Available at www.csaj.org, (Center for Survivor Agency and Justice)

• CSAJ has other resources for advocates and attorneys, including: The Consumer Rights Screening Tool for Domestic Violence Advocates and Lawyers and Domestic Violence Screening Tool for Consumer Lawyers

• www.pilr.org – Disability & Violence section offers resources to CIL advocates, SA/DV advocates and consumers

Contact Information• Stephanie Sanford –

stephaniesanford@hotmail.com

• Shelby Grau – sgrau@kcsdv.org

• Gary West – gwest@kcsdv.org