7:10pm July 2, 2014

There’s a book available that’s normally over $100, for around $15, if you want it.

http://www.amazon.com/Violence-Abuse-Lives-People-Disabilities/dp/1557661480/

If you’re really serious about reading a well-footnoted book about violence in the lives of disabled people (especially but not limited to people with developmental disabilities), this book is it. I own a copy myself from when someone sold one for $20 on eBay. Normally they go for $120 or more because they’re so rare. Occasionally someone sells them for less. Someone on Amazon is selling one for less.

It’s called Violence and Abuse in the Lives of People with Disabilities: The End of Silent Acceptance? by Dick Sobsey. Dick Sobsey is the father of a man with a severe intellectual disability, as well as an educational psychologist who has devoted his life to studying abuse and murder of disabled people with an eye to ending it. He used to run the mailing list for the International Coalition on Abuse and Disability.

This book is dry and it’s a hard read, but if you really want data you can point to, this book has it, in spades. I am never letting go of my copy, because I never know when I’ll find another one. It’s that hard to get.