Women with physical or mental disabilities are more frequently victims of sexual violence. 9% of all women said they had been victims of rape. However, the figure rises to 16% within the population of women with disabilities, indicates a study conducted by Ifop for the Association for the social and professional integration of people with disabilities (LADAPT) in November 2022.
The women interviewed with a mental disability are even 33% to say they have been raped. In 2020, a report by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees) showed that 1.9% of people with disabilities had been victims of sexual violence during the two years. previous years, compared to 0.8% of people without disabilities. The effects of this violence on the health and self-confidence of the victims can aggravate the handicap and the risk of exclusion.
More affected, less well detected and less believed
Associations point the finger at official figures that they consider unreliable, as sexual violence targeting people with disabilities is poorly tracked. In addition to being more frequently affected, disabled women who are victims of it are less easily believed, denounce organizations. To facilitate the filing of complaints, the latter require the sensitization of law enforcement.
They are joined by Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister for Disabled People, who called for “training of police and gendarmes, in National Education and in the medico-social sector to detect weak signals, collect testimonies, in particular non-verbal people.