Peer-reviewed article
People with intellectual disability and their risk of exposure to violence: Identification and prevention - a literature review.
Starke M, Larsson A, Punzi E ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This literature review examines violence risks for people with intellectual disabilities across all age groups. The research found that children, youth, and adults with intellectual disabilities face higher exposure to violence than the general population. A key gap identified is that both the affected population and professionals working with them often lack knowledge about violence risks and prevention. The review calls for better identification routines and collaboration between violence specialists and disability experts.
Key points
- Children, youth, and adults with intellectual disabilities are more exposed to violence than others
- People with intellectual disabilities lack knowledge about violence risks and what constitutes exposure to violence
- Professionals working with people with intellectual disabilities often lack knowledge about violence
- Violence prevention professionals often lack knowledge about intellectual disabilities
- There is a need for collaborative teams combining expertise in both violence prevention and intellectual disability
Limitations
This is a literature review that synthesises existing research rather than presenting new empirical data. It does not provide specific prevalence rates, intervention outcomes, or details about which types of violence or which populations are most affected.
Abstract
The aim of the literature review was to identify knowledge and knowledge gaps concerning risks of violence toward children, youth, adults and elderly with intellectual disabilities, and how risks can be identified and prevented. The research revealed that children, youths and adults labelled with intellectual disabilities are more exposed to violence than others and that the target group lack knowledge about risks of violence and what it means to be exposed to violence. It was also found that professionals who work with people with intellectual disabilities may lack knowledge about violence, and those who work with violence lack knowledge about intellectual disabilities. There is thus a need to further elaborate routines to identify exposure to violence, and to identify the target group and a need to create collaborative teams with professionals who have in-depth knowledge of violence, and those who have in-depth knowledge about the target group.