Analysis of demographic profile, sexual offenses and defense ability among intellectually disabled females

Abstract

To understand the demographic profile of female victims with intellectual disability who were sexually assaulted and the characteristics of sexual assault cases, we performed a retrospective analysis of forensic psychiatric cases of 101 female victims with intellectual disability from 2011 to 2019. In addition, we explored the influence of demographic profile and the characteristics of cases on the conclusions of sexual defense ability. The demographic profile of victims and the characteristics of sexual assault cases were examined. The effects of demographic profile and characteristics of cases on the conclusion of sexual defense ability were analyzed. Among all the victims, 59.4 % were diagnosed with mild intellectual disability. It was observed a higher frequency of the age under 20 years (59.4 %), the jobless (66.3 %), unmarried (79.2 %) and primary school education (47.5 %). More than half of the victims(52.5 %) had no knowledge of sex and 58.4 % lived in their birthplace. This study revealed 51.5 % of victims were sexually assaulted more than twice and 80.2 % of offenders knew that the victims had intellectual disability before committing the crime. Victims of mild intellectual disability were more likely to suffered three or more times sexual assaults than those with moderate-severe intellectual disability (χ2 = 8.318, p < 0.05). The more times the victims were sexually assaulted, the higher the level of sexual defense ability(rs = 0.258, P < 0.01). The less intellectual disabled the victim was, the higher the level of sexual defense ability (p < 0.01). The higher the level of education and sexual knowledge of victims, the higher the level of sexual defense ability (p < 0.01). Victims living in non-birthplaces had higher level of sexual defense ability than those living in birthplaces(p < 0.05). The data obtained are useful for guiding research that explores the characteristics of female victims with intellectual disability being sexually assaulted and make it possible to compare this data with those of other countries.