Intellectual Disability

The paper examines the research evidence on the use and effectiveness of CBT with people with ID who are victims of crime. There is not a large body of research on the use of CBT with people with ID, and the research that has been conducted within the criminal justice area tends to focus primarily upon accused persons and offenders, rather than victims of crime. There is a dearth of research about the effectiveness of CBT with victims of crime, who may suffer from a number of psychiatric and psychological disorders including anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, as well as behavioural difficulties. There are few practitioners who are expert in the dual fields of CBT and victims of crime with ID, and hence it is difficult for service users and their carers to access this form of intervention. In turn, the small number of clinicians working in this field means that few research studies are conducted; when research is conducted, the sample sizes tend to be small and unrepresentative.

Preventing people with an intellectual disability from becoming involved in the criminal justice system requires early identification of problem behaviours and other risk factors, and availability of programs and resources to address these. The risk factors may be noticed at pre-school, school, home and work, during regular health check ups, or during social and recreational activities.

People with intellectual disabilities are frequently the victims of crimes. Research shows that men and women with an intellectual disability (ID) are twice as likely to be the victim of crime directed against them personally, and one and a half times more likely to suffer property crimes than non-disabled age-matched cohorts (Wilson and Brewer, 1992). In particular, women with ID are at high risk of being sexually assaulted, with some research indicating that the majority will have been sexually exploited by the time they reach adulthood (Keilty and Connelly, 2000). Apart from abuse by strangers, people with ID may also be victimised by family members (Balogh et al, 2001), or in group homes or other residential situations; in the latter situations, the abusers are likely to be recently employed male staff members, with a prior history of being the perpetrator of abuse.