Women, Disability and Violence
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Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice: Final Report PROFESSOR JANEMAREE MAHER School of Social Sciences, Monash University DR CLAIRE SPIVAKOVSKY School of Social Sciences, Monash University PROFESSOR JUDE McCULLOCH School of Social Sciences, Monash University DR JASMINE McGOWAN School of Social Sciences, Monash University KARA BEAVIS Queensland University of Technology MEREDITH LEA People with Disability Australia DR JESS CADWALLADER People with Disability Australia THERESE SANDS Disabled People’s Organisations Australia HORIZONS : ISSUE 02 | 2018 RESEARCH REPORT | APRIL 2018 ANROWS acknowledgement This material was produced with funding from the Australian Government and the Australian state and territory governments. Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from these governments, without which this work would not have been possible. The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to the Australian Government, or any Australian state or territory government. Acknowledgement of Country ANROWS acknowledges the traditional owners of the land across Australia on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past, present, and future, and we value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture, and knowledge. © ANROWS 2018 Published by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS) PO Box Q389, Queen Victoria Building, NSW, 1230 | www.anrows.org.au | Phone +61 2 8374 4000 ABN 67 162 349 171 Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice. Final report/ JaneMaree Maher, et al. Sydney: ANROWS, c2018. Pages ; 30 cm. (ANROWS Horizons, Issue 02/2018) I. Domestic violence –Australia. II. People with disabilities – Abuse of. III. Family violence – Law and legislation – Australia. IV. Victims of family violence -- Legal status, law, etc -- Australia. V. Safety. I. Maher, JaneMaree. II. Spivakovsky, Claire. III. McCulloch, Jude. IV. McGowan, Jasmine. V. Beavis, Kara. VI. Lea, Meredith. VII. Cadwallader, Jess. VIII. Sands, Therese. ISBN: 978-1-925372-74-8 (print) | 978-1-925372-75-5 (online) Creative Commons Licence Attribution-Non Commercial CC BY-NC This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, but only if it is for non-commercial purposes and they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties). They do not have to license their Derivative Works on the same terms. Version 3.0 (CC Australia ported licence): View CC BY-NC Australia Licence Deed | View CC BY-NC 3.0 Australia Legal Code Version 4.0 (international licence): View CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence Deed | View CC BY-NC 4.0 Legal Code Please note that there is the potential for minor revisions of this report. Please check the online version at www.anrows.org.au for any amendment. Monash University Scenic Blvd Clayton VIC 3800 Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice: Final report Professor JaneMaree Maher, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Dr Claire Spivakovsky, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Professor Jude McCulloch, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Dr Jasmine McGowan, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Kara Beavis, Queensland University of Technology Meredith Lea, People with Disability Australia Dr Jess Cadwallader, People with Disability Australia Therese Sands, Disabled People’s Organisations Australia Author acknowledgment: We thank the women who worked so hard to share their stories with us for their courage and commitment. Our thanks to facilitators, advocates and counsellors, and their organisations across Victoria and New South Wales who supported women’s participation, Monash Gender and Family Violence team members, particularly Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Brandy Cochrane and Sandra Walklate who shared their knowledge and valuable insights and feedback and Madeleine Ulbrick who gave early research support. Monash and PWDA collaborated on this project and used inclusive methodologies to best represent the voices of people with disability affected by the topic. Easy English & Auslan translations of this report are also available at: https://arts.monash.edu/gender-and-family-violence/projects/women-disability-violence/ This work is part of the ANROWS Horizons series. ANROWS Horizons (research reports) are in-depth reports on empirical research produced under ANROWS’s research program. This report addresses work covered in the ANROWS research project “Women, disability and violence: Creating access to justice”. Please consult the ANROWS website for more information on this project. In addition to this report, an ANROWS Compass paper is available as part of this project. Suggested citation: Maher, J. M., Spivakovsky, C., McCulloch, J., McGowan, J., Beavis, K., Lea, M., … Sands, T. (2018). Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice: Final report (ANROWS Horizons, 02/2018). Sydney: ANROWS. iii This page has intentionally been left blank. iv Innovative models in addressing violence against Indigenous women ANROWS Horizons | April 2018 Contents Notes regarding language 3 Key terms 4 Disability 4 Violence 4 Legal capacity 4 Justice 4 Intersectionality 5 Executive summary 6 Summary of key findings 9 Conclusion: Actions to achieve access to justice for women with disability 10 Introduction 12 Our key objectives 13 Our key research questions 13 Project method 14 Using “intersectional discrimination” to explore forms of discrimination faced by people with disability 14 Phase 1 15 Phase 2 15 Portraits of participants 16 Data analysis approach 21 Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice. Final report 1 ANROWS Horizons | April 2018 Context review 22 Landscape of responses to violence for women with disability 22 Background knowledge about violence experienced by women with disability 26 Extant barriers to accessing justice 29 Key findings 33 The need to listen to the voices of women with disability and believe them 34 Women with disability face particular and sustained challenges in achieving everyday safety and security 40 Possible pathways to just outcomes 47 Service challenges across the specialist violence and disability service sectors 59 Impact of ‘siloed’ knowledges 66 Conclusion 72 Strengths and limitations of the study 75 References 76 Appendices 82 Appendix 1: Women, disability and violence: Creating access to justice 82 Appendix 2: Recruitment, participants and supports 83 2 Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice. Final report ANROWS Horizons | April 2018 Notes regarding language The use of language in understanding and responding to violence against women has been recognised as critical. Developing and using appropriate language to capture the diversity of violence against women is key in advancing women’s safety and security and developing community and stakeholder understandings and improved responses. In working with concepts of women’s strengths and resilience, language is equally important. In this report, we use the term disability within the context of the internationally recognised social model of disability. The social model recognises disability as a function of the way a society is organised, and clearly articulates that disability is an interaction between people with impairments and the barriers created by society (as outlined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). Throughout this report, we consider social and institutional definitions of and responses to disability. We then reflect on how these inform and influence how any form of impairment is experienced and the impact it has on the life of a person with disability. Using “disability” in the singular also emphasises that the focus must remain on facilitating and enabling all people to fully participate in all aspects of society, thus avoiding paying attention to types and kinds of impairment as explanatory for disadvantages or barriers experienced. Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice. Final report 3 Key terms implications of routinely denying the legal capacity of people Disability with disability. The current legal capacity framework, built In this project, disability is understood as a function or outcome into laws and policy in Australia denies or limits the exercise of the ways in which society is organised and structured to of legal capacity for people with disability (Disability Rights create and sustain disability, including: “misconceptions, Now, 2012, p. 70). discrimination, inaccessible environments, buildings, communications and information and lack of appropriate As outlined in Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of supports that prevent full participation by people with Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by Australia in disabilities in all aspects of community life” (Dowse et al. 2013; 2008, equal recognition before the law and legal capacity Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), 2013). This are inherent human rights. People with disability have the definition of disability emphasises the intersections of social, right to enjoy these human rights on an equal basis to others. political, cultural, and economic factors that discriminate People with disability have the right to be legal actors with against and marginalise people with disability. presumed legal agency, and also have the right to make decisions,