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.
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 CitationLeone 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.