Intimate Partner Violence Against Women with Disabilities: Implications for Disability Service System Case Management Practice

Abstract

Violence against women is a top human rights issue for women with disabilities, a population that is more at risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). Existing research on violence against women with disabilities has pointed to the need for population-based sampling, the inclusion of women of non-White descent, and the use of literature-based definitions of IPV, conditions all met by this study. Women with disabilities were less likely to report past-year IPV in the form of verbal abuse, but more likely to report threats and physical violence. Case management implications relate to the need for disability-sensitive IPV assessment training at all state disability offices and the need to facilitate the accessibility of traditional IPV systems.

KEYWORDS:

• domestic violence
• partner abuse
• wife abuse
• social work practice
• family violence

The author wishes to thank Drs. Pamela Joshi, Christa Kelleher, and Katrin Kri˛ as well as two anonymous reviewers for their assistance in preparing this manuscript.

Notes

¹ For a detailed discussion of these approaches and the theoretical framework used in the original study, please refer to Leone et al. (2004).

² Responses for all items related to verbal abuse or threats were measured on a 1 (never) through 5 (very often) Likert scale, but were only considered a yes if the answer was between 2 and 5.