Disability and Victimization in the Neighborhood: The Role of Neighborhood in the Disability-Victimization Relationship

• In Event: Victimization in Context: Community and Cultural Factors

Abstract

Roughly 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 6 children in the US report having a disability. Research generally finds that persons with disabilities face an increased risk of victimization. Most research in this area, however, has been focused on children or focused on a specific type of victimization (e.g., sexual assault). Missing from this literature is an examination of the role of the neighborhood in the relationship between disability and victimization. This is surprising given that persons with disabilities are more likely to live below the poverty line and are more likely to live in dangerous neighborhoods. Disadvantaged neighborhoods can directly effect victimization risk, while also interact with individual characteristics to increase the risk of victimization for certain groups of people. The current study examines the direct effects of the neighborhood on the risk for victimization for persons with a disability and whether the disability-victimization association is invariant across different neighborhood conditions. Implications for future research are discussed.

Author

• Christopher Palmore, California State University, East Bay