Police Policies on the Investigation of Sexual Crimes Committed against Adults who Have a Learning Disability

Abstract

This paper summarizes a project undertaken to gather preliminary information on the existence of policies for investigating sexual crimes against people with learning disabilities to inform the study of attitudes towards learning disability. The researcher surveyed44 police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is clear from the results of this preliminary study that there is variation in policy across the countries involved concerning the investigation of abuse and other crimes committed against adults who have a learning disability. Whilst it is accepted that some further policies may have come into existence since the data for this project were collected, the rates found in this preliminary study show the majority of forces responding did not have clear policies in this area. As a consequence, there remain the previously expressed concerns about the possibility of the individual attitudes and personal values of police officers and other staff leading to major variations in practice, owing to the gap resulting from the lack of policies about sexual and other crimes against people with learning disabilities.