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A collaborative effort between the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities, Project Shield aims to educate professionals about Sexual Assault of individuals with Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD). 

Project Shield works to facilitate more effective investigations and prosecutions of sex crimes involving individuals with MR/DD through collaboration between criminal justice professionals, social service providers, community groups, and consumers themselves. 
 

Run by trained professionals and social workers who understand disability and abuse, Project Shield addresses basic interviewing skills, myth debunking, recognition of signs of abuse, and the process of prosecuting sex crimes.

 

Fact Sheet

  • There are 5 types of developmental disabilities:
     

    • Autism

    • Cerebral Palsy

    • Epilepsy

    • Neurological Impairments

    • Mental Retardation

     

  • In order to be diagnosed with a developmental disability, it must be likely to continue indefinitely, it must be attributable to a mental or physical impairment or a combination of both, and it must result in substantial functional limitations in three or more of the following areas of their lives:
     

    • Self care

    • Receptive and expressive language

    • Learning

    • Mobility

    • Self direction

    • Capacity for independent living

    • Economic self sufficiency
 

Did you know that…

...There are up to 7.5  million Americans with developmental disabilities (Yale University School of Medicine, 2000).

...Study results show that most of the women experienced repeated assaults, almost half (46%) reported assaults on more than 10 occasions, and 27.4% reported a single episode of assault (Sobsey, 1991).

...This study also shows that 26% of women who were assaulted were unable to access any services and 35% did not report the assault.

...Women with developmental disabilities are 10.7 times as likely to be sexually assaulted as other women (Wilson and Brewer, 1992).

...An estimated 90% of men and women with developmental disabilities will be sexually victimized in their lifetime, with only 3% of the assaults reported (Sobsey and Doe, 1991; Tysika, 1998).
 
 

Remember… 

…All people with developmental disabilities have significant abilities as well as disabilities and they should be treated as able people.

…Adults should always be treated as adults, regardless of disability.     

…It is important to access a person’s functional skills and try to improve the skills that they need in order to live a more independent life.     

…Everyone – regardless of race, ability, gender, religion, sexual preference – has a right to live a life free of abuse.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Kings County District Attorney's Office
Victim Services Unit
 Sara Lynn Vehling, LMSW
(718) 250-3112
 vehlings@brooklynda.org

YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities
Bobra Fyne, CSW
(212) 273-6202
bobra.fyne@yai.org

This project is funded by NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services, S.T.O.P. Violence Against Women Formula Grants



Kings County District Attorney's Office


In collaboration with
 
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