Experiences of domestic violence among women with restrictive long-term health conditions
This research report was produced by the AIC upon request from the Disability Royal Commission for the purpose of Public hearing 5: Experiences of people with disability during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. View the original exhibit, EXHIBIT 5.71 - CTD.9700.0001.0020 - Australian Institute of Criminology, ‘Experiences of domestic violence among women with restrictive long term health conditions) on the Public hearing 5 webpage as well as in our document library.
Research Report - Experiences of domestic violence among women with restrictive long-term health conditions (Auslan)
Video transcript
Research Report - Experiences of domestic violence among women with restrictive long-term health conditions (Auslan)
Introduction
This report is about the experiences of domestic violence for women with disability.
The report uses data from a survey conducted in May 2020 about the experiences of women between February and May 2020. 15,000 women aged 18 or above responded to the survey.
The report was prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
This video is a summary. The full report is in on our website.
The report looks at domestic violence on women with a disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report:
- looks at types of domestic violence
- compares the experiences of women with and without disability
- compares the experiences of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women, women from a non-English speaking background, women who live in a regional or remote area and women with money difficulties.
Key findings
Some of the main findings of the report are:
- Women with disability experienced high rates of domestic violence before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The quarters of the women who experienced violence between February and May 2020 (in their current relationship) also experienced violence from their partner prior to February 2020.
- Women with disability experienced high levels of domestic violence at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact they were more than 3 times more likely to experience domestic violence than women without disability at this point. Specifically:
- 1 in 8 had experienced physical violence by a current partner
- 1 in 10 had experienced sexual violence by a current partner
- 1 in 5 had experienced emotionally abusive, harassing or controlling behaviour by a current partner
- 1 in 7 had experienced a pattern of behaviour that was emotionally abusive, harassing or controlling by a current partner.
- Women with disability were more likely to experience domestic violence for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic than women without disability. They were also more likely to experience domestic violence that got worse during the pandemic.
- Women with disability who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or from non-English speaking backgrounds were more likely to experience physical or sexual violence or coercive control than other women with disability.
- Women with disability living in a regional or remote areas were more likely to experience an increase in physical or sexual violence than those living in cities.
- Women with disability who had money difficulties were more likely to experience domestic violence that got worse than those without money difficulties.
More information
To read the full report and for more information, visit the ‘Policy & research’ section on our website.