Violence in deaf and hard-of-hearing people

Aggression and Violent Behavior, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 259–272, 1999 Copyright  1999 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 1359-1789/99/$–see front matter

PII S1359-1789(97)00058-X

VIOLENCE IN DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEARING PEOPLE: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE McCay Vernon Private Practice, St. Augustine, FL

Sheldon F. Greenberg Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

ABSTRACT. The few available studies on the relationship of hearing loss to violence indicate that the prevalence of brain damage, learning disability, communication disorders, educational retardation, unemployment, and underemployment in the deaf and hard-ofhearing population creates frustration which tends to manifest in disproportionate aggression, violence, and hostility. Relative to prevalence, hearing-impaired people are overly represented in the prison population, which is the major datum the literature on violence and hearing loss yields. Other than 12 studies and an American Speech and Hearing Association Committee report documenting the fact, there is an amazing paucity of literature on hearing loss and violence. The reasons for this deficit of information are discussed and ways to remediate the problem are suggested.  1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. KEY WORDS. Aggression, deaf, hard-of-hearing, violence IT IS IRONIC THAT, despite hearing loss being the most prevalent chronic health problem in the United States (Schein & Delk, 1974), almost no professional literature exists that focuses strictly on violence and deafness or violence and the hard of hearing. Extensive computer searches using these terms yield few citations. Data found in the Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness section on “Crime and Delinquency” did not address violence (Emerton & Emerton, 1987). By broadening the search to include words such as “crime,” “delinquency,” “murder,” “homicide,” etc., and relying on the authors’ personal knowledge of the field, a small number of references were found in the profes-

Correspondence should be addressed to McCay Vernon, 313 Ebb Tide Court, S. Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082.

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sional literature. Some newspaper articles regarding deaf murderers, rapists, and pedophiles were also located.

THE PROBLEM Before presenting the literature that our search identified, we will first address the reasons for its paucity. This is a critical issue because lack of relevant literature makes it difficult to address and resolve the problems created by the combined effects of deafness and violence. 1. There is no local, state, or national clearinghouse that requires that disabled offenders be identified. The Annual Uniform Crime Report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation makes no reference to disabilities among offenders. No federal agency (Department of Justice, National Institutes of Health, Department of Education) receives this information from state and local sources, and no data are compiled. Thus, there is no direct way, from crime statistics, to assess the prevalence of this type of violence. 2. Court data clearinghouses do not record or identify defendants by disability. 3. There are no professional associations or public interest organizations that track or record information on violent offenders who are deaf or hard of hearing. 4. The Bureau of Justice Statistics, the agency most responsible for collecting statistics on crime, corrections, and prisoners, does not cite disabilities in any meaningful way. 5. Although federal prisons screen inmates for hearing impairments, the Federal Bureau of Prisons does not compile and report this information. 6. The deaf and hard-of-hearing population remains relatively small when compared to all people committing violence. 7. Many of the deaf and hearing-impaired violent criminals are “lost” in police and court reports that focus on the offense rather than the offender. Others are lost because they are described in research as part of a larger segment—those committing domestic violence, gang members, ethnic groups, drug users, etc.—that does not distinguish characteristics of individuals. 8. The population of deaf and hearing-impaired offenders is not vocal, literally and figuratively. There is little or no “squeaky wheel” to draw public attention to their needs. Because they are offenders, there is little or no public outcry to meet their needs. A significant area of concern is the way in which police interact with deaf and hard-ofhearing suspects. Officers and their suspects have been injured and situations have escalated unnecessarily. At the other extreme, police have failed to take necessary action to deal with deaf and hard-of-hearing offenders in the same manner as they deal with those who hear. Quality information on police interaction with violent deaf and hearing-impaired offenders is notoriously weak (Greenberg, 1984). Police response almost always falls into one of two categories. First, police often fail to differentiate hearing-impaired suspects and treat them the same as others when reporting a crime or an incident. In such cases, there is no way to identify the suspect as deaf or hearing impaired except, possibly, for a sentence or two in the officer’s report narrative. Unfortunately, most police departments are unable to retrieve descriptive information from report narratives. Despite the advent of sophisticated data systems, there is no simple way to track or capture the number of suspects with disabilities (hearing impairment and others) who come into contact with the police. Second, police officers tend to respond overly sympathetically to deaf and hard-of-

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hearing suspects. Officers tend to avoid placing the more severe charges against deaf suspects that they would against nondisabled suspects. Their overly sympathetic response may also cause police to err in how they handle criminal investigations. Whether it is interviewing the suspect or interacting with his or her family, police too often allow their sympathy to cloud their judgment. Evidentiary mistakes result. Another factor that affects the reporting of data is that police officers are inclined to overreact in attempting to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Out of concern for liability or departmental sanction, officers may lessen the charges, take a “soft” approach toward the suspect, or inappropriately diffuse a situation, for example, by talking the victim out of bringing charges rather than risk civil allegations (Vernon, Raifman, & Greenberg, 1997). In addition to a lack of data available through police agencies, there is a paucity of information obtained in corrections, despite the “captive audience” of deaf and hearingimpaired prisoners upon which data could be developed. The ADA has led some correctional institutions to try to identify and group their profoundly deaf prisoners in order to centralize sign language interpreting and other special services mandated by the law (Vernon, 1995). However, even these efforts have focused only on deaf prisoners and ignore the much larger population of hard-of-hearing inmates. Until the police, courts, and/or corrections systems systematically screen for hearing loss and keep current data on the group accessible, it will be impractical to study the relationship between hearing loss and violence or to determine the nature and magnitude of the problem, devise potential preventive measures, or improve the systems of response. On an even broader basis, the lack of literature and attention to the relationship of violence and people who are deaf or hard of hearing may be an important indicator of the lack of importance placed on hearing loss by justice and mental health practitioners, criminologists, and others. Hearing impairment is an invisible disability; thus, it is often ignored even though it has profound effects on basic human processes, such as communication, sensory response, and learning. As stated earlier, it is the most prevalent chronic health problem in the nation.

PREVALENCE OF DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEARING INMATES IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES While seemingly tangential to the survey of the literature on hearing loss and violence, one of the most important findings of this study was the high incidence of hearing loss among inmates of correctional facilities (Jensema & Friedman, 1988a). Such studies have generally been done by audiologists with special grants or graduate students doing research projects (Table 1). The data in this table are further supported by findings of the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA,) which, based on these studies and other reports, conservatively estimates that 10 to 15% of prison inmates in the United States have losses severe enough to warrant speech pathology, audiology, special education, and rehabilitation services (Jensema & Friedman, 1988b). These data contrast to ASHA’s estimate of only 5% of the general population having losses this severe. It is ASHA’s figures that best reflect the percent of prison inmates with clinically significant hearing losses that would have major behavioral consequences. Most of the studies in Table 1 used screening tests identifying those with losses of 20 dB or more at 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 Hz. This procedure identifies some relatively minor losses and some that are unilateral. By contrast, the 10 to 15% of inmates cited by ASHA has hearing loss considered so severe as to represent a major communication handicap. In

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TABLE 1. Incidence of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Inmates in Correctional Facilities Population Studied 1,648 juvenile delinquents 360 juvenile delinquents

Criminal group in a psychiatric facility Delinquent children Adult male prison population in two prisons in Indiana Male inmates of the Maryland Children’s Center Studied 4,858 inmates in Ohio prisons Male adult population of the Lebanon Correctional Institution in Ohio Adult population of a Michigan State prison Females in a juvenile correctional facility Juvenile population in Crockett State School for Girls and Gulf Coast Trades Center Two adult prison populations in Wisconsin 149 inmates of Prince Georges County Jail, Maryland

Results Four to five times greater prevalence of hearing impaired in this population Hearing-impaired youth were disproportionately represented among children with behavior problems in a school-aged population 69% were hearing impaired 24% had hearing losses One prison had a 35% rate of hearing impaired inmates. One had an 18.6% incidence 21% had hearing losses 40% failed the hearing screening test 5% had clinically significant losses

25% failed hearing screening test Four times higher rate of hearing impaired in the institution than in the normal population 20% had hearing loss

36% had hearing losses 35% failed the hearing test

Adapted from Jensema and Friedman (1988b).

between ASHA’s figures and those presented in Table 1 are individuals whose education, language development, and functioning in groups and noisy environments are impaired significantly, but not to the point of constituting a major handicap in critical aspects of everyday living. For this review, violence is defined as “the intentional and malevolent physical injuring of another without adequate social justification” (Blackburn, 1993).Considering the fact that 46.1% of inmates in state prisons are there for violent offenses (Greenfeld, 1996), the evidence points to a significantly high correlation between significant hearing loss and violence. A critical question is raised by this surprising and rarely considered correlation: Why is there a relationship between hearing loss—a disability, and violence—a behavior? Several factors appear to influence this relationship. The first is education. Most prisoners charged with violent crimes are relatively young when first incarcerated. Most hearing loss in young people has its onset prelingually, that is, prior to 3 years of age (Watkins & Schow, 1989). Auditory deficits beginning at this early age greatly retard language growth and, consequently, education, by constricting vocabulary and impeding syntactical development (Vernon & Andrews, 1990). For example, the average hard-of-hearing child is 1

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year behind in academic achievement (Allen, 1986). Over one third fail one or more grades (Vernon & Andrews, 1990). For children who are deaf, the average educational retardation is far greater (Braden, 1994; Lane, 1992). This retardation increases for both deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals as they get older, resulting in many academic and behavioral problems (Payne & Payne, 1970). As the following case illustrates, the frustration these youth face is intense, chronic, and extremely destructive to their psychological development (Vernon & Andrews, 1990). John, a hard-of-hearing junior high school student, age 16, threatened to kill himself if forced to return to school. When interviewed, he reported that his teachers often became angry when he did not understand what was being taught. They blamed him for not wanting to learn. At recess, he was teased mercilessly by other students. Classmates mimicked his speech and called him stupid. The bus ride to and from school was of such trauma that he sat directly behind the bus driver for protection. Even then, spitballs and verbal abuse made the ride miserable. At home, John played with much younger children. His favorite game was “school,” in which he was always the teacher. Despite a performance intelligence quotient (IQ) of 115, John’s hearing loss (corrected to an average of 60 dB in his better ear) had resulted in a grade level 2.5 grade retardation, the repeating of two grades, and, most importantly, terrible unhappiness. John continuously grew emotionally ill and eventually attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. He was subsequently hospitalized as a mental patient (Vernon & Billingslea, 1973). Young hearing-impaired youth leave school often poorly educated and ill-prepared for the world of work and life in general. Their frustrations mount and their anger toward society and themselves grows. The overwhelming majority of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals cope with their frustrations nonviolently. They internalize their anger and aggression. This may manifest itself in underachievement, substance abuse, domestic problems, etc. Many deaf people accept their fate and adjust reasonably well (Bender, 1981; Higgins, 1980; Lane, 1992; Orlans, 1985; Padden & Humphries, 1988; Vernon & Andrews, 1990). However, not all deaf or hearing-impaired people internalize. Again, there is a significantly larger percentage of hearing-impaired persons in correctional facilities than among the population at large. Too often, chronically increasing frustration breeds hostility that, in turn, leads to antisocial behavior, including violence. Two other factors must be considered: Many of the major causes of hearing loss are also etiologies of brain damage (Braden, 1994). Examples are head trauma, premature birth, meningitis, prenatal rubella, and genetics. Thus, a disproportionate percent of hearing-impaired youth also have brain damage. Research has shown that brain damage and related neurological and biochemical factors are known to cause violence (Hickey, 1997). Therefore, deaf and hearing-impaired people are at greater risk for and more susceptible to exhibiting violent behavior. A third factor contributing to violence among hearing-impaired persons is the high prevalence of learning disability in this population (Morgan & Vernon, 1994). This is due primarily to the aforementioned probability of brain damage in persons with prelingual onset hearing losses. Learning disabilities cause many of the same kinds of frustrations and aggression brought about by hearing loss. The presence of learning disability is associated with an increased rate of imprisonment (Winters, 1997). When the two disabilities are combined in one person, the likelihood of violent behavior is increased exponentially. In summary, there are three basic causal factors influencing a higher-than-average potential for violent behavior among deaf and hearing-impaired people and the high number of hearing-impaired people in prison. These factors are the educational, communicative, and vocational limitations associated with hearing loss; the increased rate of brain

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damage in this population; and the higher rate of learning disabilities among the hearing impaired.

REVIEW OF PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE SPECIFIC TO PEOPLE WITH HEARING LOSS AND VIOLENCE In the pioneering book, Family and Mental Health Problems in a Deaf Population (Rainer, Altshuler, Kallman, & Deming, 1963), there is a chapter by Klaber and Falek entitled “Delinquency and Crime.” This chapter is the first formal study ever done on deafness and crime. It deals with a sample of 51 deaf criminals who came to the attention of a group of psychiatrists who were studying the New York State deaf population. Initially, they attempted to obtain records from law enforcement, correctional, and state mental health officials, but none of these sources kept records based on hearing status. Consequently, the researchers were forced to depend upon “word of mouth” and the recollections of these officials regarding cases they handled involving people who were deaf. The largest number of their cases (37.3%) fell into the classification of sex offenses (5 cases of pedophilia, 3 cases of molesting females, 3 cases of promiscuity, 1 case of indecent exposure, and 7 cases of homosexuality). Legally, some of these sex offenses, for example, pedophilia, were classified as assaults or rapes and therefore fell into the category of violent crimes. Eight other cases (15.7%) were defined as assaults. There were four cases involving convictions for homicide (7.8%). The remaining 20 cases (39.2%) were for nonviolent crimes such as vagrancy, narcotics, bookmaking, etc. In the general criminal population, sex offenders, including prostitutes, constitute the smallest number of arraignments (Klaber & Falek, 1963). In this deaf sample, sex offenders were the largest group, even though there were no cases of prostitution. The law enforcement officials whom Klaber and Falek interviewed indicated that they encountered “a large number of deaf sex offenders.” Overall, the deaf offenders in this group were described as being immature, uneducated, and ill-equipped to cope with the complexities of society and the courtroom. In the view of the authors, while the Klaber study deserves recognition as a pioneering effort, the size and nature of the sample severely restrict its generality. The most in-depth study of a violent deaf individual is the book, Dummy (Tidyman, 1974), later made into a movie starring Levar Burton. It tells the story of Donald Lang, a young African American man with deafness charged with the gruesome killings of two prostitutes. Lang’s deafness was congenital and due to maternal rubella, which also resulted in damage to his brain. Never educated, he roamed the streets of Chicago, unable to speak, read, write, or use sign language. Despite his totally lacking any verbal symbol system other than natural gestures, such as pointing, and vocalizations, such as grunts, he was able to find work loading and unloading produce at a Chicago wholesale market. There other workers introduced him to alcohol and to prostitutes. Donald became deeply involved with both. One night he checked into a “hot sheet” hotel with a prostitute who, 2 days later, was found strangled to death and stuffed into the hotel room closet. Based on circumstantial evidence, he was charged with the crime. As a result, in 1966, Lang was declared mentally and physically unable to stand trial and was committed to a mental hospital for life. On appeal, it was ruled Lang be given a trial and, if found not guilty, released (People ex. Rel. Meyers v. Briggs, 1970). By this time, the State’s key witness had died, the charges were dropped, and in 1970 Lang was released. In 1972, he was charged in the murder and rape of a second prostitute. This time, the State Supreme Court reversed the conviction on the grounds that the trial was impermissi-

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ble because Lang had not been able to understand the nature and object of the proceeding against him, consult with his attorney, nor assist in the preparation of his defense (People v. Lang, 1975). The Lang case raises several important issue, the first of which has to do with brain damage and violence in deaf persons. The rubella virus that deafened Donald Lang is known to cause the type of brain damage associated with violent, impulsive behavior (Chess & Fernandez, 1980; Harris, 1976; Vernon, Grieve, & Shaver, 1980). Lang epitomized the impulsive violence fairly common in people whose deafness was caused by rubella. Rubella, one of the most significant causes of hearing loss, is cited in other cases discussed later in the paper. Lang also exemplifies a condition, Primitive Personality Disorder, seen in 5 to 10% of the deaf community. Awareness of the disorder grew out of research in the United States and Scandinavia, especially the pioneering work of Rainer et al. (1963) and Grinker (1969). This research identified a type of deaf person who has extreme educational deprivation, little understanding of language, meager socialization, and a generally barren cognitive knowledge. Altshuler and Rainer called them “primitive personalities.” Basilear (1964, pp. 362—374), a Norwegian psychiatrist, independently discovered the same condition and described it as “surdophrenia.” Persons with this disorder have some characteristics of feral children. Most are found in remote rural areas or depressed environments. Their characteristics establish a propensity toward violence. There has been some discussion among members of the Deafness Special Interest Section of the American Psychiatric Association to include the disorder in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). As is illustrated by the Lang decisions, primitive personality-disordered persons pose an as-yet-unresolved problem to the courts because such people cannot adequately understand the charges against them or participate in their own defense (Vernon & Raifman, 1997). Nor can they be administered the Miranda Waiver for the same reasons (Vernon, Raifman, & Greenberg, 1996).

VIOLENCE EXPRESSED AS MURDER, RAPE, AND PEDOPHILIA Murder, rape, and pedophilia are classified by the FBI as violent, or Part I, crimes. With regard to murder, there are no published studies of deaf murderers. However, Table 2 provides citations and a brief summary of 16 cases involving deaf murderers as reported in the press. Domestic situations, gang slayings, fights resulting in death, acting out resulting from mental illness, or some sort of idiosyncratic rampage are the common characteristics in these cases. In media portrayal, there appears to be little difference in the circumstances surrounding homicides involving deaf people and those involving hearing people. In a study of deaf pedophilia (Vernon & Rich, 1997), the authors reviewed newspaper reports of 19 such cases (Table 3). The largest number of these occurred in child-care settings, primarily schools for the deaf and Sunday schools. In this study, the authors reported on 20 deaf male pedophiles and 2 deaf female pedophiles that they saw for psychological evaluation (Table 3). They noticed in the group a relatively high percentage of cases of Primitive Personality Disorder, brain damage, rubella as an etiology of deafness, and other mental illnesses. It is important to note with regard to pedophilia that it is a sexual preference in which behavior is motivated primarily by the perpetrators’ sexual orientation rather than hostility (Berlin, 1996). In fact, only a small percent of pedophiles are sexual sadists (Bartol, 1995), although three quarters use overt physical coercion (Groth, Hobson, & Gary, 1982). Thus,

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TABLE 2. Recent (1988, 1992–1995) Reports of Deaf People Murdering or Attempting to Murder Case

Incident

1 2

Reports a case of a deaf man killing his wife then himself Florida deaf man, Rob Hawk, charged with first degree murder in slaying of 60-year-old Betty Gray and wounding her 63year-old boyfriend Ron Blaney, a rubella-deafened 35-year-old man, stabs his girlfriend and her mother to death Cites case of 17-year-old deaf girl who set fire to her foster parents’ home, burning them to death 20-year-old deaf man, Fred Stanley, fatally stabs 73-year-old Thelma Beck Val Smith, 21, and Howard Love, 26, both deaf, shot Ed Powell, Jr., age 27, also deaf, in a gang slaying Thomas Heyer, 29-year-old deaf man, buries 10-year-old neighbor boy alive Theodore Lopez, illiterate deaf man, accused of fatally stabbing man in Montville, NJ Joann Ripic, deaf, along with her son, plotted and assassinated her husband, Thomas Ripic, after years of abuse by him Abdul Qadoos, 27, remains suspect in the stabbing deaths of three family members. The victims and suspect were all deaf Val Lamar Smith, 27-year-old deaf man, gets 15 years to life for gunning down James Powell, also deaf 68-year-old Chester Posby shoots and kills his treating physician, Dr. John Kemink, a noted ear specialist and cochlear implant surgeon Deaf man, William Nichols, arrested for killing Rebecca Eastman in brutal beating, freed on the grounds of incompetence Jury finds deaf man innocent killing 92-year-old bootlegger and money lender, “Aunt Roxie” Welder. The defendant, 44year-old Jimmy Green, was deaf, illiterate, and could not understand the court proceedings. It is felt that this led to the jury’s verdict Chris Jarboe, deaf, aged 20, with a deaf accomplice, William Hartman, murdered an 80-year-old man in his home Hearing-impaired woman steals school bus and attempts to run over two 4-year-old children

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14

15 16

Citation Lenherr, 1993 Davey, 1993

Collins, 1992 Shackleford, 1993 Dennis, 1994; Wolff, 1994 Rose, 1992 Silvertrini, 1994 Wright, 1994 Levine, 1993 Hester, 1993; Kunkel, 1992 Mrozek, 1994 Schneider, 1992

Avery, 1995 Treadwell, 1987

Dorsey, 1992 Anonymous, 1994

although police generally classify pedophilia as a violent crime, there is ambiguity regarding whether the act is motivated primarily by hostility and violence, or by the need for sexual gratification. While the reviews of newspaper accounts yielded a sizable number of reports on deaf murderers and pedophiles (Tables 2 and 3), only five articles on deaf rapists could be found (Table 4). Rape is generally interpreted to be an act motivated by hostility and violence rather than sexuality. However, with only five newspaper accounts cited in the study, it was not possible to draw conclusions about hearing loss and the violence associated with the crime of rape. Additional important data can be drawn from a study in progress (Vernon, Steinberg, &

Deaf leader and author sexually molested children and sent to prison Deaf man chronically sodomizes and rapes minor daughter resulting in birth of two children Deaf maintenance worker at school for deaf pays woman to supply him with girl, 12, for sex

Deaf man charged with sexually touching deaf children found incompetent

19

Reports case of 14-year-old deaf boy kidnapped and sodomized by 42-year-old building superintendent 34-year-old deaf Sunday School teacher molests young deaf girls in his home. Had tried to join Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. 27-year-old deaf man charged with rape of 5-year-old boy and sexual assault on his 2-year-old sister Deaf man kidnapped and raped 12-year-old girl. Was on probation for previously raping 5-year-old girl Illiterate deaf African-American sentenced to 47-year prison term for raping 5-year-old girl Several people with ties to Kentucky School for Deaf accused of sexual misconduct with students 37-year-old deaf man found competent to stand trial for sexual assault on 2-year-old girl 13-year-old deaf boy charged in sexual assault on deaf autistic female child Deaf stepfather given 15–30 years for molesting three stepdaughters, ages 4, 5, and 6 3-year sentence given 49-year-old deaf man for molesting a 13-year-old girl Deaf man, age 36, gets 50-year sentence for rape of girl, 12 Elderly deaf man charged for sexually fondling deaf children. May be incompetent Pervasive sexual abuse of minor students in Idaho School for Deaf by staff and older students Deaf Dean of Students suspended over charges of sexually molesting two deaf students Deaf dorm counselor sentenced for sexually molesting three female students

Incident

16 17 18

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

1 2

Case Number

Haines, 1992 Duchesne, 1993 Long & Silva, 1993 Eagles, 1994 Murray, 1995 DeCwikiel-Kane, 1994 Racher, 1994 Misseck, 1993 Zack, 1993 Thorne, 1993 Petroski, 1988 Austine School suspends dean over assault, 1996 Former Baxter school employee sentenced for assaulting students, 1996 Douglas, 1995 Wife of suspect denies she knew of rapes, 1996 Woman accused of providing man with 12-year-old for sex, 1995 Grevatt, 1995

Anonymous, 1993 Hoiles, 1992

Citation

TABLE 3. Recent (1988 and 1992–1997) Incident Reports of Deaf Persons Charged as Pedophiles

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TABLE 4. Reports 1993–1996 of Deaf Persons Committing Rape Case 1 2 3 4 5

Incident

Citation

Deaf 13-year-old boy attempts to rape 10-year-old deaf girl Deaf man, Rodney Wayne Jones, charged with rape and brutal attack on Kathy Young, also deaf Deaf man convicted of rape suicides in order to bring attention to injustice done to him by the courts and correctional system Rodney Jones, 40, a deaf man, was charged with rape, attempted rape, attempted murder, and burglary of a nurse in her home Jessie Macias, age 19 and deaf, charged in rape of 17-year-old student at the California School for the Deaf

DeCwitciel-Kane, 1994 Green, 1994 Anonymous, 1996 Vernon, 1993 Anonymous, 1995

Montoya, in press) of 28 deaf murderers seen for psychological evaluation by the authors. Once again, rubella was the major etiology involved, with other causes, such as complications of Rh factor and prematurity, also prominent. These conditions account in large part for the 60.7% (17 cases) incidence of brain damage in the subjects evaluated, some of which manifested itself in seizures. Such findings of neurological impairment have also been reported in cases involving normally hearing murderers (Otnow, Pincus, Feldman, Jackson, & Bard, 1986). These data again point to the role played by brain damage in the higher propensity toward violence seen in hearing-impaired people. Relative to communication, only 1 of the 28 murderers had intelligible speech and fewer than half were fluent in sign language. Fifty-seven percent were functionally illiterate. Thus, most of them experienced frustration based on their inability to communicate effectively. This situation existed despite a mean performance IQ of 99.8 for the sample. Five were diagnosed with primitive personality disorder. Referencing the DSM-IV, the most common diagnosis in the Vernon, Steinberg, and Montoya (in press) study was antisocial personality disorder (50%). Eleven of these 14 murderers were also substance abusers or polysubstance-dependent. Fifty percent of the murders took place while the offender was under the influence. The combination of the disinhibiting effect of brain damage and substance abuse creates in such deaf individuals a far greater potential for violence. Again, the frequency of the combination of brain damage and substance abuse is higher among the deaf population than the hearing population. Four of the murderers were psychotic at the time, three with paranoid schizophrenia, and one with dissociative identity disorder. Four were cases of intermittent explosive disorder. At least seven had severe cases of learning disability. Twenty-two, 12 of whom would be described as “career criminals,” had previous felony convictions.

DISCUSSION A clear and significant positive correlation exists between violence and hearing loss, as reflected primarily by corrections statistics. Other than the studies cited above, there are no concrete indicators of the degree of association between hearing loss and violence. However, when one examines factors such as the etiologies of hearing loss and their relationship to brain damage, the educational and communicative deficits imposed by hearing loss, and the frustration that results, it is logical to conclude that there is and will

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be a higher rate of violence committed by deaf and hearing-impaired people. Other factors, such as higher unemployment, limited employment possibilities, and lower income, contribute to a socioeconomic environment that can be expected to compound the problem. The size of the deaf and hard-of-hearing populations in the United States gives some perspective to the significance of this group in our society and the importance of understanding and remediating violence among people with hearing loss. In the absence of an up-to-date, valid census of the deaf and hearing-impaired population, the best estimates indicate 1% of all people in the nation are deaf (2 million) and 10% (22 million) are hard of hearing. Because the deaf are easier to identify and form a distinct subculture, most of the data reported focuses on deaf individuals rather than those who are hard of hearing. While such statistics have some general application to the hard of hearing, caution needs to be exercised in drawing universal inferences. The most obvious and, by far, the most important finding of this survey of the literature has been that there is an extraordinary paucity of data on the disproportionate occurrence of violence in a segment of our population consisting of 22 million people and representing all racial and ethnic groups and socioeconomic levels. A series of preliminary steps are suggested to fill the void in data and better serve the population: First, the federal correctional system, which currently screens all inmates for hearing loss, should compile and report these data and conduct more in-depth examinations of this population. Second, state and local correctional systems, if they are to meet their obligations under the ADA, should screen inmates to determine who and how many are either deaf or hard of hearing. Properly done, these two steps will afford basic data to establish the correlation between violence and hearing loss, offer insights to the causes and prevention of the problem, and provide a foundation of information essential to more in-depth research. Third, more psychological and psychiatric research on violent hearing-impaired and deaf people, such as the study of deaf murderers cited earlier, is needed in order to better understand the psychodynamics leading to violence in this population. Comprehensive research is needed on the nature of offenses and precipitating factors in the same manner as the research which has been conducted on serial killers (Hickey, 1997). Fourth, police and other law enforcement agencies need to capture more information when arresting deaf or hearing-impaired suspects for felony offenses. More importantly, information on the number of deaf and hearing-impaired suspects needs to be retrieved. While it will be difficult to impose additional data standards through the national uniform crime reporting system, it should not be difficult to require information collection as part of an agency’s good faith response to ADA. One means may be simply to record the frequency and nature of requests for interpreter services. While some data on deaf and hearing-impaired people may be lost, more will be captured than currently exists. Fifth, in conjunction with the above recommendation, police and corrections agencies should revise officer training curricula to include discussion about violence and people who have disabilities, as well as emphasizing the need to collect important information. Currently, training programs are limited primarily to recognizing when to call interpreters and, occasionally, when and how to administer the Miranda Warnings. This is not a call for additional time spent on training, since most agencies have difficulty meeting current federal and state mandates. It is a recommendation to change the content and, in many cases, the quality of instruction. Sixth, the associations and professional organizations whose mission is to serve people who are deaf or hearing impaired and their families should collect clinical and anecdotal information on violent behavior. Because they generally deal with the deaf and hearing-

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impaired people and their families prior to the point of arrest, the data they collect may provide a base of information essential to preventing people from acting out in the form of violent behavior. Finally, research to establish a greater body of knowledge concerning violence within the deaf and hard-of-hearing population, and to capture information necessary to improve system response once an arrest has been effected, needs to be supported by the Department of Justice, National Institutes of Health, private foundations, and others.

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