People with disabilities are much more vulnerable to harm. They’re three times more likely to be sexually abused as children, and three times more likely to be victims of violent crimes ranging from robbery to rape as adolescents and adults. As troubling, survivors rarely get the help they need to heal. Organizations dedicated to serving people with disabilities and Deaf people often have no experience working with victims of crime, while agencies focused on crime and victimization are typically ill-equipped to serve people with differing abilities.
Our work focuses on connecting professionals, breaking down systemic barriers to collaboration, and rigorously tracking performance—the only way to provide services that actually meet peoples’ needs. Much of our work is focused on survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Connecting practitioners, organizations, government agencies, communities, and individuals
The End Abuse of People with Disabilities website is managed by the Center on Victimization and Safety (CVS) at the Vera Institute of Justice. As awareness about the rates of violence against people with disabilities and Deaf people grows, so does the need to connect the practitioners, organizations, government agencies, communities, and individual ...
Existing efforts to address sexual abuse of children often fail to sufficiently account for children with disabilities, who are at higher risk for abuse than children without disabilities. In fact, the sexual abuse of children with disabilities has not garnered the attention of policymakers, practitioners, advocates, or community members, and these ...
While people with disabilities make up nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, they remain largely invisible to society at large, and victim response systems in particular. And despite growing public awareness of violent victimization, it excludes the victimization of people with disabilities, who are at particular risk of serious violent crime, i ...
Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety developed these tip sheets to assist leaders in creating and implementing accessible resources that address the needs of all people, including people with disabilities and Deaf people. These tip sheets focus on how to plan and host accessible webinars, and how to create accessible web documents, print mater ...
Thanks to the dedicated work of advocates around the country, the public has increasingly begun to recognize the prevalence of violence against people with disabilities over the last 15 years, yet little opportunity exists to coalesce into a full-fledged movement. Through the support of the NoVo Foundation, Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety ...
People with disabilities experience violence at much higher rates than people without disabilities. In 2013 alone, 1.3 million violent crimes were committed against people with disabilities. Yet, people with disabilities face significant barriers to reporting their victimization—their accounts are often dismissed or not taken seriously—as well as u ...
Invisible homelessness in DC and beyond
It’s raining today in the District of Columbia. It’s the kind of light, misty rain that persistently dusts coats and umbrellas. It’s the kind of rain that brings with it a slight chill, but pleasant freshness into the air. For most of us, the rain ends when we make our way into homes, office buildings, restaurants, and various other places of shelt ...
Performance Indicators
Using performance indicators, this one-of-a-kind resource relies on Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety’s 10 years of experience at the intersection of violence and disability to help practitioners—from disability organizations, domestic violence programs, rape crisis centers, and dual agencies—measure their organizations’ capacity to serve s ...
An Implementation Guide for Practitioners on the Adult and Juvenile Standards
The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) established a federal commission to draft national standards that address sexual abuse in confinement settings. PREA also required the U.S. Attorney General to promulgate regulations based on the standards that apply to all federal, state, and local confinement settings, including juvenile detention, l ...
Key Considerations for Serving Deaf Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence
Recent research suggests that Deaf women experience higher rates of sexual and domestic violence than their hearing counterparts, but are often shut off from victim services and supports that are ill-equipped to respond to their unique needs. As a result, they are denied access to services that could help them safely flee from abuse, heal from trau ...
A Guide for Programs Addressing Sexual and Domestic Violence
To ensure that they deliver what they promise—and do so cost-effectively—social service providers that serve victims of sexual and domestic violence are beginning to recognize the benefits of evaluating their programs. Many service providers, however, embark on self-evaluations without the underlying infrastructure necessary to support evaluation. ...
Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety developed these tip sheets to assist leaders in planning and implementing accessible meetings that address the needs of all people, including people with disabilities and Deaf people. They focus on how to select accessible venues, ensure successful meeting environments, and what to address during the planni ...
Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety, to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Written testimony of Nicholas Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice, on law enforcement responses to individuals with disabilities and the potential for new approaches, submitted on April 29, 2014 to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. Addre ...
A National Snapshot
Children with disabilities are three times more likely than children without them to be victims of sexual abuse, and the likelihood is even higher for children with intellectual or mental health disabilities. These children face many challenges in reporting the abuse and receiving vital services designed to meet their needs. Without receiving suppo ...
A Guide for Rape Crisis, Domestic Violence, and Disability Organizations
Between 2006 and 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women funded the development of collaborations between victim services and disability organizations in more than 40 communities to ensure people with disabilities who have experienced domestic or sexual violence have the community-based supports and criminal justice r ...