About DV

Statistics show that women with disabilities are more likely to suffer domestic and sexual violence in their lifetime than women without disabilities. Research on why people with disabilities (PWDs) are more likely to be abused show that this is in part due to the fact that they are more often in institutions where people have control over them. This means they are more often in circumstances where people have sanctioned power to take advantage of them.

People with physical disabilities may need help with certain aspects of everyday life, which puts caretakers in a position of power over them. Someone might abuse this power by refusing a person with physical disability transportation. Another example of abuse is moving around important life objects so that a blind person can’t find them. An abuser might intentionally keep information from a deaf person so that she can’t get help. Since these kinds of abuse take advantage of certain disabilities, they are specific to survivors with disabilities. The above is also applicable for abuse towards elderly/sickly family members.

Furthermore, stereotypes can often affect how abuse is perpetrated and whether or not someone can seek help and be heard. For example, there are powerful stereotypes that people with intellectual disabilities should not be believed – that they lie or don’t know what they are talking about. This translates to abusers feeling as if they have more power to get away with abuse.
It also means that if a person with an intellectual disability tries to get help, they are unlikely to be believed. Historically, abusive treatment has been used to treat or manage people with disabilities in institutions and has been tragically used as medical treatment, which means that sometimes domestic violence not only goes unrecognized but is condoned.