< Back to news list

Study published on harrassment and abuse of people with learning disabilities

24 May 2012

On 23 May 2012 Lemos&Crane published a report, Loneliness and Cruelty, into people with learning disabilities and their experiences of harassment, abuse and related crime in the community.

The report was researched and published by Lemos&Crane working with the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities and with support from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Commenting on the report, the authors say:

"Loneliness and Cruelty is a groundbreaking study based on in-depth interviews by frontline practitioners across the country. The report shows that people with learning disabilities living independently in the community experience a disturbing range of harassment, abuse and related crime with alarming frequency. The perpetrators in the main are local people, neighbours, often young people and schoolchildren. Incidents happen when people are out and about in the community, but also in and around their homes. Above all, these incidents are straightforward cruelty. The loneliness of some people with learning disabilities – one in four people interviewed for the research said they didn’t have any friends – is putting them at particular risk, leaving them with little choice but to visit hostile public spaces and spend time with exploitative and cruel people."