Maine Developmental Disabilities Council

There’s been a lot going on in the news lately, with inflation and war on the big screen and decision making on the small screen.

And, since we’ve been in the office a bit more, MDDC is once again getting calls from people with big problems that can’t be solved, at least not by us. Some of those calls have got me thinking about the work that the Council wants to do regarding sexual assault and developmental disabilities.

There has been a lot of policy made around developmental disability based upon the idea that people with DD can’t make good decisions.

Misinformation and stigma about intellectual disability were at the heart of institutionalization and eugenics in Maine.   https://shadowsofpineland.org/social-darwinism-eugenics-and-sterilization/  

Eugenics is essentially ‘fake science’ that says that social problems can be eliminated through selective breeding of humans. These ideas had widespread acceptance in the early 20^th century and was popular in in Nazi Germany. In the US it resulted in the forced sterilization of over 60,000 Americans, mostly people of color and people with intellectual disabilities. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sterilization-united-states_n_568f35f2e4b0c8beacf68713   Eugenics

In case you think “that can’t happen anymore”, in May 2022, here in Maine, forced sterilization of children, as well as of adults, is legal.  (Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/34-B/title34-Bch7sec0.html; https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/%C6%92.NWLC_SterilizationReport_2021.pdf )

Did you know that approximately 80% of women and 30% of men with intellectual disabilities have been sexually assaulted? Half of those women have been assaulted more than 10 times.  (Source: http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/sexuality/assaults.php#ixzz2SXMEQWra)

The first research about this is over 30 years ago. And it’s still a big problem. People with intellectual disabilities are vulnerable for a lot of reasons. Central to that vulnerability is stigma. Stigma is a perceived negative attribute that causes others to think less of the whole person. An intellectual disability may mean that a person has actual difficulty learning or communicating.  And, that person may experience stigma by others who see them as “less than”. Stigma results discrimination or prejudice related to the attribute…so a person who as difficulty communicating may be thought to have nothing worth listening to, or not being believable. A person who has difficulty learning may be thought of as being not worth teaching. So when it comes to sexual violence, people with intellectual disabilities may not be easily understood and less likely to believed. And, since most assault is committed by people they know and depend upon for some type of support, they may experience additional fear.

And, some things have begun to change. There is some awareness of sexual violence towards people with disabilities among law enforcement. Some education and risk mitigation resources exist.

But, when someone is sexually assaulted, it is really, really hard to find someone (like a doctor or a therapist) who can help them recover. MDDC thinks that should change.