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Family Violence Against Women with Disabilities
WHAT IS FAMILY VIOLENCE?
Family violence, in this context, refers to physical,
psychological or sexual maltreatment, abuse or neglect of a woman
with disabilities by a relative or caregiver. It is a violation
of trust and an abuse of power in a relationship where a woman should
have the right to absolute safety. In many cases, it is also a crime.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Violence against women is acknowledged as a pervasive
and serious problem in today's society. Women are abused simply
because they are women. Statistics for the general population indicate
the following:
- one woman in four is sexually abused by age 16;1
- two women in three are victims of unwanted sexual
acts;2
- one woman in six is physically or sexually abused
by her husband, ex-husband or live-in partner;3
- over 60% of female homicides are due to family
violence;4 and
- 14.7% of women in the general population have
disabilities.5
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,6
and at least 89% of abusers are men.7 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.8
WHAT MAKES WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES PARTICULARLY
VULNERABLE TO FAMILY VIOLENCE?
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, neighbours and caregivers.
Caregivers can include attendants, interpreters,
homemakers, drivers, doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers,
psychiatrists, therapists, counsellors, 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.9
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
vulnerablility 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 behaviour 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; and
- when they do report abuse, they may not be believed.10
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.11
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.12 Women have cited violence by husbands as
causing loss of vision, and loss of mobility.13 All forms
of abuse are emotionally traumatic and can leave psychological scars
from which a victim never recovers.
PREVALENCE OF ABUSE
- Research has only just begun in this area, but
indications are that women and children with disabilities are one
of the most highly victimized groups in our society.
- A survey conducted in 1985 by DAWN Canada: DisAbled
Women's Network found that violence and fear of violence were the
most critical issues facing women with disabilities.14
- The degree of risk of sexual abuse of persons
with disabilities "appears to be at least 150% of that for
individuals of the same sex and similar age without disabilities".15
- It is estimated that only 20% of the cases of
sexual abuse involving disabled people are ever reported to the
police, community service agencies, or other authorities.16
- Two hundred and forty-five women with disabilities
responded to DAWN Canada's 1988 Canada-wide questionnaire:
- 40% had been raped, abused or assaulted;
- 53% of women who had been disabled from birth
or early childhood had been abused;
- women with multiple disabilities had experienced
multiple abuse; and
- 10% of women who had been abused sought help
from transition houses; only half of these women were accommodated.17
- One study suggests that we can expect to encounter
significant disabilities in about one of every seven victims of
child sexual abuse. This can be expected to increase as case reporting
for children with disabilities improves.18
BARRIERS TO OBTAINING HELP
It is extremely difficult for any abused woman
to leave a situation of abuse. "A woman is hit by a husband
or partner an average of 35 times before she calls the police."19
Battering undermines self-esteem and can make a woman feel she is
somehow responsible for her own abuse. For a woman with a disability,
this situation is even more difficult. She may be dependent on her
abuser for affection, communication and financial, physical and
medical support. If she reports the abuse, she may risk poverty
and loss of housing. She may fear she will not be heard or believed
if she speaks out. She may face further violence, institutionalization,
or loss of her children if she seeks help. She may not have access
to information about existing support services for victims of violence.
Even if she has this information, many sources of support are not
be accessible. She may not be able to contact the police or women's
shelters because they do not have communication devices such as
Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf (TDDs). She may not be able
to physically leave her situation because of a lack of accessible
transportation. Her lack of options may leave her feeling so powerless
and despairing that suicide seems the only viable choice. And if
she seeks help in dealing with suicidal thoughts or attempts, she
is unlikely to find counselling which takes account of her own reality.
And so she is left isolated and possibly suicidal.
FORMS OF VIOLENCE
Violence against women with disabilities can take
many forms, which can occur at the same time. It occurs not only
as deliberate maltreatment and abuse, but also in the more passive
form of neglect:
- neglect - denial of food, lack of or inappropriate
personal or medical care;
- physical abuse - assault, rough or inappropriate
handling, inappropriate personal or medical care, over-use of restraint,
inappropriate behaviour modification, over-medication, confinement;
- psychological abuse - verbal abuse, intimidation,
social isolation, emotional deprivation, denial of the right to
make personal decisions, threat of having her children taken away;
- sexual abuse - denial of a woman's sexuality,
denial of sexual information/education (eg. about birth control
and childbirth), verbal harrassment, unwanted sexual touching, assault,
forced abortion or sterilization; and
- financial exploitation - denial of access to
and control over her own funds, misuse of financial resources.
THE ABUSER
The abuser occupies and violates a position of
power with respect to the victim. The abuser may:
- use authority over the victim to obtain "consent"
for sexual contact;
- attempt to justify sexual abuse by rationalizing
that he is doing the victim a favour because nobody else would be
sexually interested in her;
- threaten the victim with violence or death if
she tells anyone;
- use the victim's disability or difficulty in
communicating to discredit her story if she tells; and
- is more likely to be believed than the victim,
particularly if he is in a position of authority.
HOW WE CAN WORK TOWARDS ELIMINATING ABUSE
Violence against vulnerable individuals and groups
is a systemic problem. Preventing family violence will require fundamental
changes in societal attitudes. People need to learn to appreciate
differences, to value other people as equals, and become responsible
partners in our common community.
There are many changes needed to improve the present
situation for women with disabilities who are victims of violence:
- abusive behaviour needs to be acknowledged as
a serious social and in some cases criminal problem, rather than
being considered a private matter;20
- protocols need to be developed for institutions
to screen potential employees and volunteers;
- protocols need to be developed to address the
abuse that occurs in institutional settings;
- community living alternatives need to be made
available for women with disabilities;
- courses need to be made accessible and available
to women with disabiliies (eg., in self-defense, assertiveness training,
and sex education).
- appropriate suicide counselling which meets the
special needs of women with disabilities needs to be made available;
- transition houses and other existing support
services need to be made accessible, and frontline workers in shelter
facilities need to be sensitized to the needs of women with disabilities;
- women with disablilities need to be hired to
provide this training and to work in these centres; and
- women in all communities need to work together
to develop a co-ordinated approach to dealing with the abuse of
all women.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
- Become part of the solution.
- Explore your own neighbourhood and find out what
services are available and accessible.
- Work towards increasing accessibility.
- Listen to and take seriously any person who says
she is being abused.
- Pay attention to any situation that might be
abusive and be available to listen and act if your help is required.
- If you know of someone who is being abused, find
a safe way to remove her from the situation she finds dangerous.
- Offer whatever support she needs, whether it
be listening, helping with childcare, providing transportation,
or other assistance.
WHERE TO GO TO GET HELP
If you are a woman with a disability and you are
being abused in any way, you need support. Get in touch with a women's
transition house, battered women's support group, or rape crisis
centre in your community. If there is not one, call your local DAWN
branch. Another option is to contact a consumer group for persons
with disabilities. In addition, there are fourteen Independent Living
Centres across Canada that may be of assistance. Call a legal clinic,
a lawyer, or the police.
Ask for help, and make sure you
get it.
SUGGESTED READING
Violent Acts Against Disabled Women. Joanne
Doucette. Toronto: DAWN Canada, 1986.
Meeting Our Needs: Access Manual for Transition
Houses. Shirley Masauda and Jillian Ridington. Vancouver:
DAWN Canada, 1990.
Responding to the Abuse of People with
Disabilities. Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped
(ARCH). Toronto, 1990.
"Tackling Violence Against Women with
Disabilities." In Canadian Women Studies. Cathy MacPherson.
Downsview, Ontario: York University, Fall 1991, pp.63-65.
Beating the "Odds": Violence
and Women With Disabilities. Jillian Ridington. Vancouver:
DAWN Canada, 1989.
"Sexual Abuse of Disabled Persons and
Policy Alternatives." In Bullard, D.G. and Knight, S.E.
(eds). Sexuality and Physical Disability: Personal Perspectives.
E. Ryerson. St. Louis: C.V. Mosby, 1981.
Vulnerable: Sexual Abuse and People with
an Intellectual Handicap. Charlene Y. Senn. Prepared by
The G. Allan Roeher Institute, Toronto, 1988.
"Sexual Offenses and Disabled Victims:
Research and Practical Implications". Dick Sobsey.
In Vis-A-Vis, 6:4 (Winter, 1988). Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social
Development, 1988.
"Factors in the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
of People with Mental Retardation". Paper presented
at the Young Adult Institute Conference: Employment, Integration
and Community Competence, New York, April 27-29, 1988.
Sexual Abuse of Children with Disabilities
& Sexual Assault of Adults with Disabilities: Prevention Strategies.
Sheila Mansell and Don Wells, University of Alberta, Sexual
Abuse & Disability Project. A report submitted to the Family Violence Prevention Unit, National Health Research and Development
Program, Health and Welfare Canada, March 31, 1991.
Wife Assault in Canada: A Factsheet,
by Support Services for Assaulted Women. Toronto: P.O. Box 245,
Station K, Toronto, Ont. M4P 2G5, (undated).
ENDNOTES
1. Ken Finkel, Canadian Medical Association
Journal, (Ottawa: Canadian Medical Association, Feb.1, 1987),
p.245.
2. Robin Badgely et al., Sexual Offenses Against
Children in Canada (Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services),
1984.
3. Linda Lawson, "Domestic Violence",
in B.C. Woman to Woman, April 1992, p.9.
4. Linda MacLeod, Battered But Not Beaten: Preventing
Wife Battering in Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council
on the Status of Women), 1987.
5. 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.
6. Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe, and Susan Kaye Wilson,
Children of Battered Women, (Newbury Park, Cal.: Sage Publications),
1990.
7. Standing Committee on Health and Welfare, Social
Affairs, Seniors and the Status of Women, The War Against Women
(Ottawa, June 1991), p.6.
8. Charlene Senn, Vulnerable: Sexual Abuse and
People with an Intellectual Handicap (Toronto, 1988).
9. Dick Sobsey, "Sexual Offenses and Disabled
Victims: Research and Practical Implications", Vis-A-Vis,
1988.
10. Dicky Sobsey, Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
of People with Disabilities (Developmental Disabilities Centre,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1988), pp.6,11.
11. Natalie I. Migus, Elder Abuse, (The
National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health and Welfare Canada,
November 1990).
12. Colleen McGrath, "The Crisis of Domestic
Order", Socialist Revolution (FBI statistics), Jan.-Feb.
1979.
13. Shirley Masuda, Meeting Our Needs - An Access
Manual for Transition Houses (Vancouver, 1991), pp.20-23, 1985.
14. Jacqueline Pelletier, Report: Women with
Disabilities Networking Meeting, June 20-23, 1985.
15. Dick Sobsey, "Sexual Offenses and Disabled
Victims: Research and Practical Implications", Vis-A-Vis,
1988.
16. Dick Sobsey, Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
of People with Disabilities, quoting Ryerson 1981, p.2.
17. Jillian Ridington, Beating the Odds: Violence
and Women With Disabilities, March 1989, pp. 1,6.
18. Ibid, p.5.
19. Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe, and Susan Kaye Wilson,
Children of Battered Women, (Newbury Park, Cal.: Sage Publications),
1990.
20. Linda Lawson, p.8. "75% of Canadians believe
assault at home is a private matter, not a criminal code offense."
This document was prepared under contract by Bridget
Rivers-Moore, DAWN CANADA. Contributions of the following individuals
are gratefully acknowledged: Francine Arsenault, PUSH Ontario; Cathy
McPherson, ARCH; Marcia Rioux, G. Allan Roeher Institute; Marilyn
Rueter, Consultant; Glynnis Ellerington, Ottawa Independent Living
Centre; Linda Graham, The McCreary Centre Society (Sexual Abuse
and Young People with Disabilities Project); Shirley Masuda and
Joan Meister, DAWN CANADA; Vera Lagasse and Gordon Phaneuf, Health
and Welfare Canada.
For further information on violence against women
with disabilities or on other family violence issues, contact:
National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
Family Violence Prevention Unit
Social Service Programs Branch
Health and Welfare Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1B5
(613) 957-2938 or call the toll free number,
1-800-267-1291
For TDD* users (*Telecommunication devices for
the deaf), please call (613) 952-6396, or dial no charge 1-800-561-5643
November 1992
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