It is a study that sends shivers down the spine: the number of young handicapped victims of violence is impressive.
- This study provides an alarming overview of the violence experienced by children and young people with disabilities around the world
- Despite recent progress and awareness, it seems urgent to increase efforts and collaboration between governments to banish all forms of violence against children by 2030, according to the United Nations
An impressive set of studies conducted between 1990 and 2020 on more than 16 million children with disabilities, aged 0 to 18, from 25 countries, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Journal states that one third of children and adolescents with disabilities have experienced violence. An impressive figure that could conceal an even more dramatic reality, aggravated by the Covid 19 pandemic
Twice as likely to be a victim
Overall, children and adolescents with disabilities are twice as likely to be victims of violence as children without mental or physical disabilities. Thus, even if small disparities exist – the most affected are children with mental and cognitive disorders (34%) and those who come from a disadvantaged social background or from a poor or developing country – vulnerability is visible to all children with disabilities.
A serious and lasting impact on their health
Emotional and physical violence are the most frequently reported since they concern one in three children and adolescents. But other forms of violence emerge from all of the studies: one disabled child in five suffers from a lack of care and attention and one in ten is a victim of sexual violence. All this violence has a considerable impact on the health and well-being of her children.
Targeted
There is also a high rate of moral harassment (40%), characteristic of violence against children with disabilities. They are all the more vulnerable and targeted because they often lack the means to communicate and defend themselves. And the situation could be even more serious, since the analysis of the data is based on the relationship between children/adolescents and carers or caregivers – yet violence can be expressed in other scenarios.
The prevalence of violence could be even higher
It should also be noted that among the 98 studies, only 23 come from 7 countries where income is the lowest, whereas a large majority of children and adolescents with disabilities (94%) live in these countries where the lack of information on the disability, stigma, difficult access to social assistance contribute to raising the rate of violence suffered by this vulnerable population, which the coronavirus pandemic has helped to isolate.
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