ABUSE IN ALL ITS FORMS is shameful and grotesque, but abuse of people with disabilities is particularly horrific, and recent news accounts bring this fact into sharper focus.

In August, a man with a disability was beaten severely by three adolescents on a subway platform in Boston when he heard them using the word “hate” in their conversation, and he told them that they shouldn’t use the word.  This man’s disability hindered his ability to recognize that injecting himself into the conversation could be dangerous.

Earlier this year, a father of a child with a disability in New Jersey suspected that his child was being abused by a school teacher, and sent his child to school with a hidden recording device.  The verbal abuse the teacher directed at the student, and which the student was able to record, was hurtful and severe. 

Disabilities can of course prevent a person from getting away from an abuser or defending one’s self – and a person with a disability may be unable to call for help.  Some with disabilities may be unable or limited in their ability to tell anyone what happened to them. Many people with autism, a population that is growing in America, have difficulty reading the social cues of others, and this can result in a person with autism unintentionally irritating or angering someone who could do that person harm.

More troubling yet, many people with disabilities don’t have friends or peers to help advocate for them, and this is due in part to the fact that our social, cultural, and employment institutions have not been fully opened to those with disabilities.  We know that there is significant under-reporting of abuse in the disability community for all of the above reasons.

From 2009 through 2010, cases of serious violent crimes such as rape/sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault against people with disabilities went up from 270,830 to 282,460, according to the United States Department of Justice. 

In 2010, serious violence made up about 50 percent of all violence against people with disabilities, a rise of 36 percent from the previous year.

A story that ran on March 12, 2011 in the New York Times focused on appalling incidences in which employees of New York state’s group homes for people with disabilities abused the residents.

The story described how very few allegations of criminal abuse were referred to law enforcement, even though state law requires these allegations be referred to authorities; the story also detailed widespread lack of accountability and oversight of employees, and how 25 percent of employees who had been accused of sexual, physical, and emotional assault – with each accusation supported with credible evidence – were transferred to work in other state-run homes.

The story related the case of a supervisor who was accused of sexually abusing a woman with severe disabilities.  Evidence against the worker included an eye witness and physical evidence found on the victim, yet despite that evidence he was placed on administrative leave and then transferred to another group home.  He eventually was arrested, tried, and convicted of a misdemeanor and spent less than a year in jail.

“Law enforcement officials had trouble explaining the delays and errors in the case and blamed the victim’s inability to communicate,” the article said.

Blaming the victim: Haven’t we learned that this is something we should never do?

As a civilized society, we simply cannot tolerate this level of abuse.  It is an indictment on our values and an expression of the lack of inclusion in our community and in our world.

Yes, we need tougher laws and better enforcement.  I know that as a former prosecutor.  Even more difficult than changing laws, no mean feat in and of itself, we need to address our values and attitudes. 

We must look ourselves in the mirror, search our souls, and admit, yes, we must do better.

Jay Ruderman is president of the Ruderman Family Foundation.