Disabled Women Vulnerable to Family Violence

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According to US statistics a person with a disability is 4 to 10 times more likely to be a victim of a crime than a person without a disability. 60% of women with hearing impairments, 59% of women with visual impairments, 57% of women with learning disabilities, and 47% of women with mobility impairments will be physically abused in their lifetimes. 81% of people with psychiatric disabilities have been physically or sexually assaulted. 85% of women with disabilities have been victims of some form of domestic abuse. Women with disabilities stay in relationships with their batters almost twice as long as women without disabilities.

According to one Canadian Study about 14.7% of women in the general population have disabilities.(1) In both the disabled and non-disabled communities, most abuse is inflicted by a person known to the victim. In both communities, 95% of victims of spousal assault are women,(2) and at least 89% of abusers are men.(3) More disabled men are abused than are non-disabled men. The incidence of abuse is 20% or higher in the developmentally disabled and deaf community. (4)

Probably the single biggest factor affecting the incidence of family violence against women with disabilities is the extent of these women's "families". Women with disabilities must often depend on a variety of people to provide them with assistance in carrying out their everyday lives. For this reason, their "family" is understood to include not only parents, husbands, boyfriends and other relatives, but also friends, neighbors and caregivers.

Caregivers can include attendants, interpreters, homemakers, drivers, doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, and workers in hospitals and other institutions. This large number of people and the intimate physical and emotional contact involved in the care they provide, greatly increase the risk of abuse to persons with disabilities.
Women who live in institutional settings, and women who are multiply or profoundly disabled, are most vulnerable to abuse because they are more dependent upon even larger numbers of people, and less able to get away. It is estimated that women with disabilities are 1.5 to 10 times as likely to be abused as non-disabled women, depending on whether they live in the community or in institutions. (5)

While a disability can make it more difficult for a woman to escape or report abuse, social attitudes towards persons with disabilities are probably a bigger factor in her increased vulnerability to violence. The way in which society views persons with disabilities handicaps these women in many ways:

They tend to be viewed and treated as children, as lacking intelligence.

They may be trained to be compliant and are sometimes punished for assertiveness or for challenging authority figures. This is in direct contrast to the street-proofing taught to many children in schools;

Women with disabilities are considered to be non-sexual and are often not given sex education, which can result in an inability to distinguish between abusive behavior and normal or necessary forms of touching;

They may be considered incompetent witnesses by police and the courts, particularly if they have difficulty or require assistance in communicating;

When they do report abuse, they may not be believed.(6) Women with disabilities are vulnerable at all stages of their lives because they are women and because they have a disability. Growing old increases the likelihood of becoming disabled, which can increase the likelihood of abuse.(7)

It should be noted that abuse can result in disability. Physical abuse can cause permanent physical damage. "Disciplining" babies by shaking them is a major cause of brain injury and death in infants.(8) Women have cited violence by husbands as causing loss of vision, and loss of mobility.(9) All forms of abuse are emotionally traumatic and can leave psychological scars from which a victim never recovers. (10)

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1. Secretary of State, Statistics on Persons with Disabilities in Canada, a summary of the original document, "An Economic Profile of Persons with Disabilities in Canada (1986 statistics)", 1990, p.4.

2. Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe, and Susan Kaye Wilson, Children of Battered Women, (Newbury Park, Cal.: Sage Publications), 1990.

3. Standing Committee on Health and Welfare, Social Affairs, Seniors and the Status of Women, The War Against Women (Ottawa, June 1991), p.6.

4. Charlene Senn, Vulnerable: Sexual Abuse and People with an Intellectual Handicap (Toronto, 1988).

5. Dick Sobsey, "Sexual Offenses and Disabled Victims: Research and Practical Implications", Vis-A-Vis, 1988.

6. Dicky Sobsey, Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of People with Disabilities (Developmental Disabilities Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1988), pp.6,11.

7. Natalie I. Migus, Elder Abuse, (The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health and Welfare Canada, November 1990).

8. Colleen McGrath, "The Crisis of Domestic Order", Socialist Revolution (FBI statistics), Jan.-Feb. 1973.

9. Shirley Masuda, Meeting Our Needs - An Access Manual for Transition Houses (Vancouver, 1991), pp.20-23, 1985.

10. Jacqueline Pelletier, Report: Women with Disabilities Networking Meeting, June 20-23, 1985.