MSP Briefing
Inclusion Scotland’s briefing for MSP’s for the Scottish Government Debate on Violence against Women
Thursday, 4th December, 2014.
- Introduction
1.1Inclusion Scotland is a network of disabled peoples' organisations and individual disabled people. Our main aim is to draw attention to the physical, social, economic, cultural and attitudinal barriers that affect disabled people’s everyday lives and to encourage a wider understanding of those issues throughout Scotland.
1.2In the same fortnight as the 16 days of action, disabled people are also celebrating the UN’s International Day for Disabled People on 3 December, and Human Rights Day on 10th December. Disabled people have the same rights as non-disabled people, but can also claim the rights of the UN Convention on the Rights to Disabled People (UNCRPD).
1.3For women and girls in situations of violence,article 6 on equality for disabled women and girls, and articles 15 (freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) and 16 (Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse) of the UNCRPD apply to this debate.
- Violence against Disabled Women
2.1Scottish Women’s Aid defines domestic abuse as,“physical, psychological, sexual and financial violence that takes place within an intimate or family-type relationship and forms a pattern of coercive and controlling behavior. This could include forced marriage and so-called ‘honor’ crimes. Domestic violence often includes a range of abusive behaviors, not all of which are inherently violent.”
2.2The Scottish Census 2011 revealed that for all 25+ age groups there are more women than men with long-term health conditions or impairments. Disabled women and girls disproportionately experience gender based violence, are more susceptible to violence across the life course and are more likely to suffer more severe injuries as a result. Experiences of domestic abuse for disabled women and girls differ to those of non-disabled women and girls because of the double discrimination they face as women and as disabled people.[i]
2.3The rate of gender-based violence for the general female population in Scotland is 1 in 5.[ii] Disabled women, however, are twice as likely as non-disabled women to experience gender-based violence,[iii] including domestic abuse, sexual assault and rape.[iv]
2.4Disabled children are approximately three times as likely to be sexually abused as non-disabled children.[v]1 in 2 disabled girls will have experienced some form of sexual violence before their 18th birthday, compared to 1 in 5 disabled boys.[vi]
2.5Studies have identified that there are a number disability specific types of physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse that are not experienced by non-disabled women.[vii]Much of this kind of abuse is about coercion and control on the part of the abuser. Examples given include, but are not limited to, ‘the misuse of medication, isolating individuals from family and friends, removing the battery from the woman’s power wheelchair’.[viii]
2.6The powerlessness attributed to a woman’s impairment and gender mean that distinct factors contribute to their having unique experiences of gender violence. For instance, disabled children are exposed to very limited sex education. Recent research by CHANGE[ix] and National Children’s Bureau (NCB)[x] found that people with learning disabilities are unsatisfied with the sex education they received in school, and Inclusion Scotland’s recent consultations with disabled people confirms that this continues to be the case.
2.7In particular, girls with learning disabilities are made vulnerable to sexual abuse because they have had so little guidance as to what a ‘normal’ sexual relationship comprises. Attitudes about a girl’s lack of sexuality or reproduction rights can be used to prevent young women and girls from forging friendships and personal or sexual relationships during adolescence, leading them to be vulnerable to exploitation due to lack of education and experience.
2.8Dependency on others for basic social and/or personal care can also put disabled women and girls in situations where they are atrisk of domestic violence.Their perceived ‘dependency’ on others mean disabled women are more likely to be perceived as asexual, and their bodies are often objectified. This can lead to ‘diagnostic overshadowing’, where a disabled woman or girl is either not believed when they report their abuse, or their injury is falsely diagnosed as being a result of her impairment rather than an injury caused by abuse. These attitudes held by health professionals and other service providers subject the abused woman to persistent cycles of abuse and victimisation from different persecutors.[xi]
2.9This debate is also taking place at a time when many disabled people are subjected to disability related harassment and hate crime and there are regular reports of violence and abuse in care homes.[xii] Studies such as Scope’s Attitudes towards Disabled People survey[xiii] and EHRC’s ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ Inquiry into disability harassment reveal the extent of disability hate crime and ‘a systemic failure by public authorities to recognise [its] extent and impact … take action to prevent it happening in the first place and intervene effectively when it does’.[xiv] Recommendations to take a multi-agency approach to disability harassment and abuse would also be appropriate to preventing violence against disabled women.
- Barriers to accessing services
3.1In addition, disabled women face barriers to accessing services that they need to leave or report a perpetrator. These can include fear of lossof the perpetrator of the violence if they report them because they might depend on them as their main carer. However, there are also institutional barriers to access to services that further contribute to their continued abuse.
3.2Scottish Women’s Aid’s latest annual survey of funding for Women’s Aid services (2012-13) found that ‘almost a third of Women’s Aid groups (29%) had to make cuts to their services as a result of reduced funding. This included closing a refuge, cut backs to outreach services to women living in the community, reducing support hours to women and children,increasing waiting lists for both refuge and outreach services, andcutting therapeutic activities for children’.
3.3Cuts to specialist domestic abuse services impact on the ability of disabled women to access them. Most services for victims are not physically accessible for many disabled women and girls, and there are very few accessible refuges in Scotland. Rape Crisis reports that when it extended its services to include outreach work there was an 80% increase of disabled women accessing support as a result. Cutting outreach services, conversely, will likely lead to disabled women and girls being unable to access crucial victim support services.
3.4Inaccessible documents are also an issue for many disabled women and girls trying to access services and also benefits when leaving an abusive relationship. And because of lack of funding for BSL interpreters, deaf women are often forced to use a family member to access support services or report abuse. This may put them at risk if the person they rely on is involved in the violence.
- Financial abuse and cuts to welfare
4.1 Universal Credit (UC) introduces a single, monthly, household payment. It incorporates a range of previously individual benefits which were paid fortnightly. The change will create budgeting challenges for women who take responsibility for the home, and will be particularly challenging for women with learning disabilities. ‘The household payment under Universal Credit will increase the opportunity to create financial dependency, prevent women from leaving and place women and their children experiencing domestic abuse at increased risk.’
4.2 Eight in 10 households affected by the Bedroom Tax contain a disabled person, and the higher number of women carers again puts them at a disproportionate disadvantage. Women are also less likely to receive income based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) if their partner earns over £16,000 a year, and they no longer qualify for the contributory element of ESA after 1 year. Scottish Government anticipates that this ‘will represent a loss of independent income and increased dependence on their partner.’
- Recommendations
5.1In their research on disabled women and violence in Scotland, Dr Sonali Shah and her research team asked the research participants to identify recommendations and aspirations to protect disabled women and girls from domestic violence. These include a decent standard of sex education for disabled children (including children with learning disabilities) and the mainstream school curriculum including lessons about bullying and violence. These chime with Inclusion Scotland’s recommendations about the right of people with learning disabilities to private and family life, and reduction of disability harassment and hate crime,[xv] respectively.
5.2The research participantsfrom Shah et al’s study also recommended: ‘More accessible accommodation, e.g. refuges; disabled women need to be listened to and believed by service providers; Disability Equality Training (DET) for victim support services & criminal justice systems;and, reduction of diagnostic overshadowing’. This would all need additional funding to enable services to ensure they are as accessible as possible to disabled women.
5.3We commend the Scottish Government for action it has taken mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax and other welfare cuts on disabled people, and recommend that it continues to mitigate action and fully assess the impact of any policy changes on disabled women. We recommend that devolved benefits such as the Social Fund are made available to disabled women who report that they are experiencing domestic violence. We also recommend that the Scottish Government examine what opportunities exist within the new proposed devolved powers to ensure that any woman reporting domestic abuse can change the way her UC payment is made.
Note of Thanks: We would like to extend our gratitude to Dr Sonali Shah of Glasgow University for sharing her team’s research findings from their EU funded study, ‘Hidden Voices: Disabled Women’s experiences of violence and support over the lifecourse’.
If you have any questions on this briefing, or for further information, contact:
Dr Pauline Nolan; Policy & Engagement Officer, Inclusion Scotland
0131 281 0865; Email:
Visit our website:
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[i]Along with other potential intersecting identities, such as age and Lesbian, Bi or Transgender identification.
[ii]
[iii]Hague, Gill, Ravi K Thiara, Pauline McGowan and Audrey Mullender(2008)
‘Making the links: Disabled women and domestic violence, Women’s Aid.
[iv]
[v]Sullivan, P. and and Knutson, J. (2000). Maltreatment and disabilities: a population based
epidemiological study. Child Abuse and Neglect, 24, 10, 1257-1273.
[vi]Shah, Sonali, Sarah Woodin and LitoSitsou Unpublished paper under review‘Hidden Voices: Disabled Women’s Experiences of Violence and Support over the lifecourse’
[vii]Nosek, MA, C. Clubb Foley, R.B hughes and C A Howland 2001 ‘Vulnerabilities for abuse among women with disabilities’ in Sexuality and Disability September 2001, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp 177-189
[viii]Cf.Shah, et al. op cit.
[ix]
[x]
[xi]Shah, et al. op cit.
[xii]MSP’s will be aware of the case of abuse at Winterbourne care homein England: IS does not believe that cases like this are rare as particularly people with learning impairments are increasingly sent to live in residential hospitals for months at a time.
[xiii]Scope, 15 May 2011,
[xiv]Equality and Human Rights Commission, August 2011,‘Hidden in plain sight: inquiry into disability-related harassment’
[xv]See also the recommendation in EHRC’s ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ report (ibid.), page 177.