"Ending the Silence" by Diane Nelson Bryen, Ph.D.

The lecture today was about crimes against people with developmental disabilities. Dr. Bryen emphasized about the problem about the silence of crimes against people with disabilities. She showed that the biggest difference between a normal person being raped and a person with disabilities being raped is that when the person with disabilities is raped, it ends up going silent. She showed that this happens because many cannot report their offenders. She also stated that the alleged offenders are often tried and found not guilty. This really gave me a new view as to how difficult it is to live with a disability. What was more sad about this was the story that Dr. Bryen had told us. It was a story about a girl with a disability who was raped. It took a year for the parents to discover that their daughter had been raped because the girl herself did not even know what rape was. When the girl was being questioned and the offender was caught, he was given a lighter sentence because the police said that the family of the victim was leading her. Dr. Bryen pointed out that crimes against victims with disabilities is silent because of issues like communities covering it up or emphasis on other crimes. The shocking aspect of this lecture was the data that said that people with developmental disabilities are at four to ten times higher of a risk of becoming crime victims. She also showed that the offenders are often the caregivers themselves.
Dr. Bryen then talked about how we can "end the silence." One of those ways was to help people with developmental disabilities protect themselves by providing training with self-defense, a better vocabulary for those with disabilities, and more. We should also form some sort of partnership with the police and the justice system. People that are the victims themselves could help end the silence by telling their own stories.
Dr. Bryen then showed us a video about six people with disabilities that were sexually and physically abused. It was extremely depressing to hear these people talk about how they were abused by other people. One person was talking about how he had been abused at the age of ten and still at the age of forty-nine, he is still haunted by what happened.
After the video Dr. Bryen got into a discussion with us about how each of us can help "end this silence." We came up with seven ways being: 1. Educate future educators of this issue 2. Observe behaviors and find ways to "tell" it 3. Infuse this issue into training programs for counselors, therapist, and protective services. 4. Equal justice (crimes are crimes) 5. Improve access to the criminal justice system 6. Increase awareness 7. Incorporate, if needed, into self advocacy training.
I thought that this special lecture was one of the most informative and very well presented lectures that I have ever been to. Hopefully that there can be more lectures like this so that the silence can forever be ended.