Fact Sheet

“Violence against women with disabilities includes physical, sexual, and emotional violence and abuse as well as institutional violence, chemical restraint, drug use, forced or coerced sterilisations, forced contraception, forced or coerced psychiatric interventions, medical exploitation, violations of privacy, humiliation and harassment. In addition to physical, mental and sexual violence and abuse women with disabilities face unnecessary institutionalisation, denial of control over their bodies, lack of financial control, denial of social contact, employment and community participation,” – Carolyn Frohmader, CEO of Women with Disabilities Australia.

FACT SHEET:

Violence against women with disabilities in Australia is far more extensive than violence amongst the general population. (i)
Violence perpetrated against women with disabilities is significantly more diverse in nature and more severe than for women in general. (ii)
Women with disabilities in Australia continue to experience violence (particularly sexual violence) in residential and institutional settings, (iii) where they frequently experience sustained and multiple episodes. (iv)
Compared to their peers, women with disabilities experience significantly higher levels of all forms of violence and are subjected to such violence by a greater number of perpetrators. (v)
Women with disabilities are 40% more likely to be the victims of domestic violence than women without disabilities, (vi) and more than 70% of women with disabilities have been victims of violent sexual encounters at some time in their lives. (vii)
20% of women with disabilities report a history of unwanted sex compared to 8.2% of women without disabilities. (viii)
The rates of sexual victimisation of women with disabilities range from four to 10 times higher than for other women. (ix)
More than a quarter of rape cases reported by females in Australia are perpetrated against women with disabilities. (x)
90% of Australian women with an intellectual disability have been subjected to sexual abuse, with more than two-thirds (68%) having been sexually abused before they turn 18 years of age. (xi)
Women and girls with disabilities have far less chance of being believed when reporting sexual assault, domestic violence, and other forms of violence, than other women and girls. (xii)
Crimes of violence committed against women with disabilities often go unreported, and when they are, they are inadequately investigated, remain unsolved or result in minimal sentences. (xiii)

References:

(i)Dowse, L., Soldatic, K., Didi, A., Frohmader, C. and van Toorn, G. (2013) Stop the Violence: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia. Background Paper. Hobart: Women with Disabilities Australia; See also: Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), People with Disability Australia (PWDA) and the University of New South Wales (2013) ‘Stop the Violence: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia’; Report of the Proceedings and Outcomes of the National Symposium on Violence against Women and Girls with Disabilities; Sydney, 25 October 2013. WWDA, Hobart, Tasmania; See also: Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (2014) Beyond doubt: The experiences of people with disabilities reporting crime – Research findings. ISBN 978-0-9875444-9-3; Melbourne, Victoria; See also: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2012) Australian Social Trends June 201: Children with a disability, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Cat. No. 4102.0.

(ii) Dowse, L. et al (2013) OpCit. (iii) Dowse, L., Soldatic, K., Didi, A., Frohmader, C. and van Toorn, G. (2013) Stop the Violence: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia. Background Paper. Hobart: Women with Disabilities Australia; See also: Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), People with Disability Australia (PWDA) and the University of New South Wales (2013) ‘Stop the Violence: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia’; Report of the Proceedings and Outcomes of the National Symposium on Violence against Women and Girls with Disabilities; Sydney, 25 October 2013. WWDA, Hobart, Tasmania. Available at: http://wwda.org.au/issues/viol/viol2011/ (iv) Attard, M., & Price-Kelly, S. (2010) Accommodating Violence: The experience of domestic violence of people with disability living in licensed boarding houses, PWDA, NSW. (v) For example: In August 2014, a Perth taxi driver was found guilty of 33 charges including rape and sexual assault of 5 women with disability who had been reliant on the maxi taxi driver for their transportation. The assaults only came to light when one of the women, a 29-year-old woman with cerebral palsy and significant communication impairment, was able to alert her carer to what had happened. When police reviewed security footage from the maxi-taxi, they discovered a further four disabled women had been sexually assaulted by the driver over a two month period. See: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-08/perth-taxi-driver-jailed-for-10-years-for-rape-and- sexual-abuse/5658274 See also: Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) (2007b) ‘Forgotten Sisters – A global review of violence against women with disabilities’. WWDA Resource Manual on Violence Against Women With Disabilities. Published by WWDA, Tasmania, Australia. (vi) Brownridge, D. (2006) ‘Partner violence against women with disabilities: Prevalence, risks and explanations’, Violence against Women, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 805–22. (vii) Frohmader, C. (2014) ‘Gender Blind, Gender Neutral’: The effectiveness of the National Disability Strategy in improving the lives of women and girls with disabilities. Prepared for Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), Hobart, Tasmania. ISBN: 978-0-9585268-2- 1. Available at: http://wwda.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/WWDA_Sub_NDS_Review2014.pdf (viii) Cited in Dowse, L. et al (2013) OpCit. (ix) Ibid. (x)Frohmader, C. (2011) Submission to the Preparation Phase of the UN Analytical Study on Violence against Women and Girls with Disabilities, (A/HRC/RES/17/11). Prepared for Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA). Available online at: http://wwda.org.au/issues/viol/viol2011/ (xi) Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) (2010) Family Violence — A National Legal Response. ALRC Final Report 114. Accessed online January 2013 at: http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/family-violence-national-legal-response-alrc-report-114 (xii) In Frohmader, C. (2011) OpCit. (xiii) Ibid.