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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:24 am
Time: 1:24 am
Results for vulnerable peoples
1 results foundAuthor: Dowse, Leanne Title: People with Complex Needs who are the Victims of Crime: Building evidence for responsive support Summary: This project aimed to provide a detailed description of the nature and experience of crime victimisation for an identified group of people with complex needs in NSW, including those who have intellectual disability and mental health disorders and other co-occurring experiences of social disadvantage and who have been in the criminal justice system as offenders. Through interview and consultation with key organisations delivering services or representing the interests of this group, the project has also explored the current context of service delivery in NSW, identified key current challenges in providing responsive, appropriate and adequate support to this group and identified current gaps and innovative or best practice where it currently exists. The report provides context and background to the issue and draws on an already assembled unique source of linked data obtained from routine data collections from a range of service organisations in NSW on a cohort of 2731 people who have complex needs and who have been incarcerated in NSW. The People with Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disabilities (MHDCD) in the Criminal Justice System dataset www.mhdcd.unsw.edu.au allows both quantitative and qualitative descriptions of victimisation pathways and experiences. Outcomes of the analysis of the MHDCD dataset are provided here in the form of descriptive statistical analysis of the cohort as a whole, supported by selected case studies, which allow detailed illustration and nuanced observation of the ‘lived experience’ of victimisation for this group. Consultation and interviews were conducted with 21 individuals from organisations identified through an environmental scan as key stakeholders in providing services to this group or representing their interests in policy and practice. Key findings emerging from the descriptive statistical analysis suggest that victimisation is very common in the lives of people with complex needs who offend. The majority of the cohort (85%) has experienced at least one instance of being a victim and over half (65%) have been the victim of violent crime. Victimisation is more common among women, and those reporting a prior history of homelessness, those with a history of alcohol and drug use problems, intellectual disability, a mental health condition, an acquired brain injury and a history of serious mental illness such as schizophrenia. Analysis of violent victimisation identifies higher incidence for women, Aboriginal Australians, those with a history of homelessness and those who had experienced custody as a juvenile. Aboriginal Australians on average experience their first victimisation at a younger age than non-Aboriginal people. Analysis suggests that whilst the presence of any disability diagnosis is associated with high rates of victimisation, increasing levels of health complexity and need are associated with an increased risk of violent victimisation (54.6% of those with one diagnosis had been violently victimised compared to 71.8% of those with two diagnoses and 80.6% of those with three diagnoses, p<0.01). This indicates that it is not simply the presence of a disability that increases vulnerability to victimisation, but rather the interaction of multiple and compounding disability and social disadvantage operates to increase vulnerability to violence. Interestingly it was found that this pattern is reversed in relation to non-violent victimisation experiences, so that while having greater complexity in diagnoses makes individuals more likely to be a victim of violence, it appears to proportionally decrease the likelihood of non-violent victimisation. Analysis of service interactions for the cohort indicate that those who have received disability services at some point in their lives, those who have received Legal Aid, and are clients of Housing NSW experience higher levels of violent victimisation as compared to non-violent crime. Clients of Ageing, Disability and Home Care, and of its Community Justice Program, have particularly high rates of personal victimisation indicating that these services face challenges in dealing with their clients’ disability needs when they clearly occur in the context of a more complex life world characterised by high vulnerability to victimisation. Legal Aid clients similarly experience a disproportionately high incidence of victimisation, particularly of a violent nature, as do those who have tenancies with Housing NSW. Case study analysis illustrates the simultaneous and multiple processes of marginalisation experienced by people with complex needs. These can be seen to both create the context for their vulnerability to victimisation and to result in system and service responses which are limited, inadequate and often criminalising in and of themselves, such as the consequences of victimisation in out of home care settings. The significant impact of early victimisation experiences, especially sexual abuse and assault, can be seen in the life trajectories of the individual case studies presented. The impact of unstable early life and childhood experience of victimisation can be seen in the later teenage and early adult years of individual lives manifesting as vulnerabilities to their both experiencing and perpetrating further forms of violence, in particular in their adult domestic contexts. Also clearly illustrated is the vulnerability to harassment and victimisation associated with having a cognitive impairment where individuals are both subject to victimisation directly related to their disability and less able to respond in ways that do not escalate their victimisation. Similarly, the presence of cognitive impairment appears to lessen the chances lessen the chances of recognition, reporting and adequate redress such as reports not being taken seriously, appropriate support for disclosure not being available and the risks associated with disclosing victimisation within a care relationship on which an individual may be dependent. Key representative and service provider organisations identified through an initial environmental scan were approached for interview. The 21 individuals interviewed identified a range of significant issues which are currently seen to impact on policy and services for this group. Barriers to the provision of responsive and appropriate services for this group were identified by informants to include issues around a general lack of capacity of mainstream support services to cater to the needs of this group, poor communication and awareness of services that are available, low levels of identification and engagement of people with complex needs in services generally, restricted availability and accessibility of services and the reluctance of people with complex needs to engage who generally have had poor experiences with services in the past. Enablers for better responses were identified as service flexibility and accessibility, proactive and outreach service models which are skilled in the recognition, identification and assessment of victimisation and its impacts on those with complex needs. Key principles underpinning best practice in the area were identified as including inclusive and universal communication strategies for engaging individuals in services, a trauma informed care approach which is holistic, person-centred and premised on relationship and trust building as a foundation for addressing more complex issues of vulnerability to victimisation. Enhanced capacity in both specialist and mainstream provision would be enabled by the development of training and awareness of the connections between complex needs, offending and victimisation. An approach which is informed by a human rights framework which is community based and which premises prevention and early intervention was identified as foundational to enhancing capacity to provide responsive and appropriate support for those with complex needs who have or at are risk of being the victim of crime. Details: Sydney: University of New South Wales, 2015. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 27, 2017 at: http://www.victimsclearinghouse.nsw.gov.au/Documents/People_with_Complex_Needs_and_Crime_Victimsation_Final_Report_Jan_2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Australia URL: http://www.victimsclearinghouse.nsw.gov.au/Documents/People_with_Complex_Needs_and_Crime_Victimsation_Final_Report_Jan_2015.pdf Shelf Number: 141222 Keywords: DisabilityVictim ServicesVictimizationVictims of CrimeVulnerable PeoplesVulnerable Victims |