“Put bluntly, they are targeted by the worst creeps society has to offer”: Police and professionals' views and actions relating to domestic violence and women with intellectual disabilities

McCarthy, Michelle; Bates, Claire; Triantafyllopoulou, Paraskevi; Hunt, Siobhan; Skillman, Karen Milne

doi:10.1111/jar.12503

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Being treated respectfully by the police or receiving compensation for victimisation did not make up for the participants’ frightening experiences. These findings support previous research [ 45 ] highlighting the need for women with intellectual disabilities to be informed about sexually abusive relationships and ways to get help. In our study, one male participant (no.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Personal and sexual boundaries: the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities

2022

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Background Previous research shows that people with intellectual disabilities have less knowledge about sexual health and are more vulnerable to victimisation. In cases of sexual abuse, they are likely to encounter the criminal justice system as vulnerable witnesses. Several challenges arise when people with intellectual disabilities are in communication with the criminal justice system. We aimed to explore the perceptions, experiences and knowledge of people with intellectual disabilities regarding personal and sexual boundaries in order to identify factors relevant for preventing sexual abuse, to develop future studies. Method The study had a qualitative design. Data were collected from seven people with mild intellectual disabilities (25–40 years; 2 men, five women) through one-to-one interviews in specialised health care services for people with intellectual disabilities (SHCS). The participants lived alone, in group homes and with their families. Many received professional support services. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results The interviews identified that the participants want to be in romantic relationships and that some, consider sex to be unimportant. Many of them have had trouble finding someone to have a romantic relationship with. The participants were unsure about sexual consent related to sexual activity, though many could explain the concept of consent in other contexts. Many participants reported that they had experienced sexual abuse, including online sexual abuse. Those participants who had reported the sexual abuse had positive experiences obtaining assistance from the criminal justice system. The participants who had experienced sexual abuse reported trauma and fear related to their experiences. Conclusion This study highlights the need for information about sexually abusive relationships, risks online and ways to get help. More attention should be given to the impact of trauma, police and mental health treatment following sexual abuse against people with intellectual disabilities.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Personal and sexual boundaries: the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities

2022

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“…Being treated respectfully by the police or receiving compensation for victimisation did not make up for the participants' frightening experiences. These ndings support previous research (37) highlighting the need for women with intellectual disabilities to be informed about sexually abusive relationships and ways to get help. In our study, one male participant (no.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Personal and sexual boundaries: The experiences of people with intellectual disabilities

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Søndenaa

2022

Preprint

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Background: Previous research shows that people with intellectual disabilities have less knowledge about sexual health and are more vulnerable to victimisation. In cases of sexual abuse, they are likely to encounter the criminal justice system as vulnerable witnesses. Several challenges arise when people with intellectual disabilities are in communication with the criminal justice system We aimed to explore the perceptions, experiences and knowledge of people with intellectual disabilities regarding personal and sexual boundaries in order to map factors that can help prevent sexual abuse. Method: The study had a qualitative design. Data were collected from seven people with mild intellectual disabilities (28–40 years; 2 men, five women) through one-to-one interviews in specialised health care services for people with intellectual disabilities (SHCS). Some participants lived alone, and some lived with their families. Many received professional support services. Data were analysed using thematic analyses. Results: The interviews identified that the participants want to be in romantic relationships but consider sex to be unimportant. Many of them have had trouble finding someone to have a romantic relationship with. The participants were unsure about sexual consent related to sexual activity, though many could explain the concept of consent in other contexts. Many participants reported that they had experienced sexual abuse, including online sexual abuse. Those participants who had reported the sexual abuse had positive experiences obtaining assistance from the criminal justice system. Some participants reported trauma and fear related to the sexual abuse they had experienced. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for increased sexual education, including information about sexually abusive relationships, risks online and ways to get help. More attention should be given to the importance of trauma, and treatment after experiencing sexual abuse is needed.

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“…Fifth, as in all studies employing non-randomised designs, there may have been residual confounding by unobserved variables. Specifically, intellectual disability in the mother (not available in our data), has been suggested, anecdotally, to be a risk factor for IPV 64 and may be an important residual confounder of associations between maternal exposure to IPV and offspring IQ scores, although the inclusion of maternal educational attainment in our models at least would have partly controlled for this.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Intelligence in offspring born to women exposed to intimate partner violence: a population-based cohort study

Abel¹,

Heuvelman²,

Rai³

et al. 2019

Wellcome Open Res

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Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a risk factor for developmental problems in offspring. Despite a high prevalence of IPV in the UK and elsewhere, the longer-term outcomes of offspring born to exposed mothers remain under-researched. Methods: Population-based cohort study. We assessed IPV prevalence by type and timing for 3,153 mother-child pairs with complete data within our study population and examined associations between IPV and offspring IQ. We used multiple-imputation to evaluate bias due to our exclusion of observations with missing covariate data. Results: Nearly one in five mothers reported IPV during the study period, with 17.6% reporting emotional violence and 6.8% reporting physical violence. Taking into account potential confounders, the IQ scores of children born to mothers exposed to physical violence remained lower than those of maternally unexposed children (full-scale IQ = −2.8 points [95%CI −4.9 to −0.7], verbal IQ = −2.2 [95%CI −4.4 to −0.1], performance IQ = −2.7 [95%CI −5.0 to −0.5]) and odds of below-average intelligence (IQ<90) remained increased for full-scale (OR 1.48 [95%CI 1.03 to 2.14] and performance IQ (OR 1.48 [95%CI 1.08 to 2.04]) but not verbal IQ (OR 1.06 [95%CI 0.69 to 1.64]). Most physical violence occurred postnatally, and relative odds were most substantial when mothers were exposed to violence across pre-/perinatal and postnatal study periods (OR performance IQ<90 = 2.97 [95%CI 1.30 to 6.82]). Conclusions: Maternal exposure to physical IPV is associated with lower offspring IQ at age 8. Associations persisted after adjusting for potential confounders and were driven by violence occurring postnatally.

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“Put bluntly, they are targeted by the worst creeps society has to offer”: Police and professionals' views and actions relating to domestic violence and women with intellectual disabilities

Abstract: More training is needed for both the Police and health and social care professionals specifically in domestic violence as it affects women with intellectual disabilities.

Cited by 14 publications

References 23 publications

Personal and sexual boundaries: the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities

Personal and sexual boundaries: the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities

Personal and sexual boundaries: The experiences of people with intellectual disabilities

Intelligence in offspring born to women exposed to intimate partner violence: a population-based cohort study

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