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R MONASH
- University November 2019 Submission via email to: DRCenguiries@royalcommission.gov.au
Submission to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability
Thank you for this opportunity to provide a submission in response to Royal Commission into
Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. This submission has been prepared by members of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre (MGFVPC).
More details about our research centre and our current related research are provided as part of our Submission.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss any aspects of this submission or our wider research further with the Commission.
Kind regards,
Professor JaneMaree Maher
Professor Jude McCulloch
Dr Jasmine McGowan
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OUR RESEARCH ACTIVITY
The Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre focuses on research examining the intersection of gender and the long-term prevention of family violence. Centre researchers work collaboratively with partners in government, social services, legal services, health and policing, working to contribute to changing family violence patterns and outcomes. We identify family violence as a catastrophic and preventable social problem.
The Centre draws on expertise from across the University, including social science, law, and medicine with a focus on building an evidence base to inform primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of family violence and violence against women more broadly. Members of the Centre are
engaged in work that includes groundbreaking research, engagement with government and civil
society stakeholders, and innovative education offerings. Our research is grounded in qualitative and quantitative methods, combined with a well-developed understanding of the contemporary national and international policy landscape.
Members of the Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre are engaged in:
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Contract research and consultancy- including on all aspects of family violence, family violence prevention and responses to family violence;
• Policy development - including on perpetration interventions, risk assessment and risk
management, mapping and developing linkages and collaborations between sectors and
between multiple intersecting reforms and reform agendas;
- Evaluations of programs and reforms - including large-scale multi-sector reforms. • Workforce capability building - on family violence prevention for practitioners and policy
makers from a wide range of sectors; and
- Expert lectures, seminars, industry briefings and opinions on family violence.
- International exchange with leading family violence practitioners and experts globally
WOMEN, DISABILITY AND VIOLENCE: CREATING ACCESS TO JUSTICE
This submission relies on data from a project that explored the experiences of 36 women with disability in seeking access to justice when they have faced violence and/or sexual assault either inside or outside their relationships. The 36 women were located in Victoria and NSW in urban and regional areas. The research team’s approach centred women’s voices and experiences, and explored their insights in relation to those of service providers and other justice sector stakeholders. It is therefore focused in the experiences and needs of women with disability.
The project was funded by the Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and undertaken in collaboration with People with Disability Australia (PWDA). We are grateful to both for their support.
We are enduringly thankful to the women who shared their stories with us. The full report can be found here. https://www.anrows.org.au/publication/women-disability-and-violence-barriers-to-accessing-justice-final-reporU
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Section 1: Questions about your experiencesII These questions are just a guide. You can answer as many or as few as you like, or if you like, you can make a submission on any issue covered by the Terms of Reference.1
Incidents of violence, 9 abuse, neglect and/or I!!'
exploitation
1. Have you been or are The project, Women, disability and violence: Creating access to
you aware of a person justice, draws on the insights of 36 women living in New South
with disability being Wales and Victoria who outlined their experiences of seeking
exposed to violence, justice and security in the context of violence that they had
abuse, neglect or experienced. As part of their commitment to policy- relevant
empirically grounded research, Australia's National Research exploitation?
Organisation for Women’s Safety (AN ROWS) commissioned this If yes: research, which took place in 2017-18. The project was led by
a. Whathappened? researchers from Monash University and People with Disability
Australia, hereafter PWDA (representing Disabled People's
b. Did it happen once or Organisations Australia, hereafter DPOA).
a number of times? We also interviewed 18 service providers from NSW and Victoria working in disability support services and advocacy organisations, domestic and family violence support services, and legal services.
Violence in this project was understood to include physical and sexual violence as well as other forms of abuse such as coercive control, emotional abuse, financial abuse, and physical and social isolation. We found that all women with disability who participated had extensive experiences of violence, and that these occurred across the lifecourse for these women. Reports of violence in childhood were common. For many, living with everyday violence was normal - ‘just a part of their lives’. Women described instances
of domestic and family violence defined broadly as violence
occurring within a familial or caring context. It included sexual and physical assaults in a range of social and living environments.
They described experiencing sustained violence in their
communities, often over many years.
In addition, violence was understood to take particular forms such as
withholding required medications or aids, limiting access to
disability services and/or mainstream service providers and threats related to women’s mothering and care-giving roles. Violence that
violated women's sexual and reproductive autonomy, including
forced or coerced sterilisation was also commonly reported.
1 https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/about/Pages/Terms-of-reference.aspx
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Incidents of violence, abuse, neglect and/or •I!!’ exploitation Women with children had significant fears about the loss of their children if they reported family or domestic violence given the precarity of their housing, financial and care situations.
Avenues to seek desired justice outcomes, which may include prevention of future violence, everyday security and safety, and consequences for the perpetrators of violence are complex, as justice services and pathways may not effectively support the access of women with disability.
Importantly women reported that when they disclosed violence
they were not believed. They reported disbelief from family
members, service providers, educators, carers and service
providers. Often they elected not to disclose for fear of being dismissed or for fear of adverse consequences, such as the loss of care, or for those women with children, the loss of their children. This disbelief was experienced as a critical form of violence and abuse in these women’s lives.
Sarah: I was in tears thanking that police officer [who
indicated that she believed Sarah], I said, "I want you
to know, whatever happens from now on with that court case, ifthey walk off.. :: and I said, “Do you know what, you have done the justice, you have done it. It’s already done.” And that really touched her, she was emotional about it, and I said, “You’ve done it”.
The violence included sexual assaults and physical violence, often from intimate partners who were often also carers in receipt of carer’s pensions. The violence was typically not one off but severe, pervasive and ongoing. The violence and abuse reported was in some cases specific to the experience of disability. This abuse
included withholding or overdosing on medication or denying
mobility and other disability aids. These findings are in line with research which indicates that women with disability experience violence more frequently and experience more severe violence. A key finding was that violence characterized their life experiences.
Sandra: I’m safer in my house on my lounge than anything, with my cats. But I don’t think anywhere really is safe in the world. There is no safe place in the world. Anywhere, anytime, someone violent can turn up or someone from your past and the whole thing starts again. I left him 14 years ago.
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Access 3i
The Royal Commission into Family Violence (RCFV, 2016) has2. Do you have concerns
been identified as a watershed moment in Victoria in terms of about access to places
accepting broad-based responsibility for changing women's and services and whether
everyday experiences of family and other forms of violence. In this has placed you or
other states in Australia and globally, a similar commitment is
people with disability at being articulated. Yet, the past five years in particular have seen
risk of violence, abuse, numerous reports and inquiries that outline both the existing
neglect and/or issues and pathways forward for women with disability facing
exploitation? If yes: violence and seeking access to justice.
a. What are your We hope this Royal Commission revisits and reinforces the need concerns? to take action on these existing recommendations. In securing
access to justice and freedom from violence for women with
b. Have you raised those disability, it is clear that we need to act on what is known and has
concerns been proposed: first, ensure access to everyday security and
with anybody? safety with attention to housing, economic well-being, and
respectful and responsive service structures that support women’s
c. Who did you raise safety and security. your concerns with?
Paula: First of all, they should believe you. Second, d. What was the they should give you choices of where to go from outcome? there. And then support you in what you want to do, which may be just going to psychologists to help. It may be, “I want to report it to the police.” It may be, “I am not safe where I am living,” so we need to find a way to either move the person - move one or the other.
Provision of services 1.2,
-
Do you believe that you or Data gathered during our project indicated that women with a person with disability disability face violence in multiple ways. Violence occurs through missed out on any a diverse range of incidents, consistently as part of everyday services, care or experiences and through the operations of family structures,
communication that has relationships, institutions, service delivery and policy and
resulted in or increased legislative settings. Women’s legal capacity was routinely denied
the risk of violence, or inhibited; reproductive and sexual autonomy were
abuse, neglect or compromised, women’s decisions about treatment and desired exploitation because of: outcomes were not respected and appropriate communicative methods and approaches were not undertaken with women.
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Provision of services ,.2,
a. gender, gender These actions and inadequate approaches work to deny or limit identity, sexual
the legal capacity (and perceived legal capacity) of women with orientation or intersex
disability and have implications for effective service responses. status,
Women sought effective, respectful and prompt responses from
b. age, their services, particularly in relation to disclosures of violence.
Women's aspirations for everyday security and freedom from c. being born outside
violence for themselves, and in many instances their children, were Australia, also a critical aspect of what they identified as justice and access to
d. not speaking English justice. They often distinguished personal and legal justice. Our
as a first language, or study found that definitions of violence and access to justice
require considerable attention and expansion if we are to e. any other personal
effectively address the needs, and embed the human rights and attribute, reason or safety of women with disability into service delivery models. circumstance (please
specify which). In addressing the needs of women with disability, different
services (here including disability support and advocacy
If yes, please tell us what services, specialist violence and domestic and family violence happened. services, and legal support services) faced different challenges in
supporting women to achieve lives free from violence.
Understandings of disability and violence were variable and at times seemed reliant on common or pre-existing assumptions about women with disability - aboutwomen’s legal capacity and rights, about what “needs” women were likely to have, about what “barriers” to accessing justice might exist, about how violence might manifest and about what responses might best serve
women. The research indicated that those in the disability and
specialist family violence services needed to work more closely together to better understand to and respond to the needs of women with disability experiencing violence.
Janet: I’ve got this ridiculously driven thing that I keep going, it’s a curse, but I know so many people who give up, they die, they take drugs, they drink themselves stupid, they do whatever they can to try and cope in a system that actually, I believe, subconsciously I hope… wants us to die because we’re too much trouble. And we’re really not asking for anything other than a safe place to be while we regain control of ourselves …
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More inclusive society @
4. What could be done to In our view, as in the views of these women and the service
promote a more providers we interviewed in this study (disability support and
inclusive society that advocacy services, domestic and family violence specialist
supports the services, sexual assault services, and legal support services), independence of people the changing landscape of the disability and specialist violence
sectors not only offers uncertainty, but also hope and with disability and their
opportunity. We are entering into a period in Australia's history right to live free from
where traditional approaches to violence are being challenged and violence, abuse, neglect new understandings of the rights, choice and control of people with and exploitation? disability are emerging. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) legislation is based on human rights with a focus on people with disability having choice and control over the supports they need to enjoy full participation in community life.
Accordingly, for us, there is a real opportunity at this time for
support services across the specialist violence and disability
service sectors to build cross-sectoral and grounded knowledge in workers. This is in spite of a depressing recent history of the failure to effectively implement existing recommendations. There is a need
for cross-sector training packages that support the specialist
violence and disability service sectors to form stronger linkages and referral pathways which make use of the full range of provisions emerging across these two sectors. The success of these initiatives however will depend on close attention to what women say they want and need. It will also depend on the willingness to act on existing recommendations that have been produced by numerous inquiries over the past decade to ensure autonomy, participation and security and safety for women with disability.
Nicole: Feeling safe means everything to me. To me it is one of the core factors for life, for survival. To remember, to process, to engage in the process of
healing you first and foremost need to feel safe
before you can learn to trust. And you need trust
before you can start healing.
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Section 2: Anything else you would like to tell us aboutII
In the past decade, violence and access to justice for people with disability have been the focus of multiple reviews and interventions within Australia. The question of legal capacity for women with disability is still unaddressed. As the Australian Human Rights Commission outlines (AHRC) (2014), all jurisdictions should have a disability strategy underpinned by a national Disability Justice Strategy. Implementation of this strategy should be guided by the following principles:
- Safety of people with disability and freedom from violence.
- Effective access to justice for people with disabilities.
- Non-discrimination. 4. Respect for inherent dignity and individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own
decisions.
- Full and effective participation and inclusion in the community. (AHRC, 2014, p. 6) In their report about equal recognition before the law, the AHRC (2014) outlines a necessary set of actions and principles to support people with disability to claim their human rights and exercise full and effective legal capacity (AHRC, 2014, p. 36). The Violence, Abuse and Neglect against People with Disability in Institutional and Residential Settings, Including the Gender and Age Related Dimensions, and the Particular Situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People with Disability, and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse People with Disability Report (Parliament of Australia 2015) also contained a number of important recommendations. Recommendation 6 (2015, p. xvii) reiterates references of the need to implement the outcomes of prior reports. The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) Family Violence and Commonwealth Laws- Improving Legal Frameworks (2011) identified necessary changes to address definitions of family violence that would better the needs of people with disability. As the recent review by Didi et al. (2016) of Australia’s progress in meeting its human rights obligations in relation to
responses to violence against women with disability makes clear, there is still inadequate progress
towards everyday security. We encourage the Royal Commission to review these and work towards full implementation to achieve its objectives and the critical objective of enhancing safety for women with disability.
The data gathered as part of the ANROWS-funded research was used to develop work relating to two
specific forms of violence against women with disability not able to be covered in depth in Women,
disability and violence: Creating access to justice. The first was a report on the prevalence of economic abuse perpetrated against women with disability. As part of this work Centre researchers developed a toolkit designed to assist in the identification of economic abuse.
The Economic Abuse report can be accessed here. The Toolkit can be accessed here
REFERENCES
McGowan, J. & Elliott, K. (2019) ‘Targeted violence perpetrated against women with disability by neighbours and community members’, Women’s Studies International Forum 76 (September-October) [online]. Maher, J.M., Spivakovsky, C., McCulloch, J., McGowan, J., Beavis, K., Lea, M., Cadwallader, J. and Sands, T. (2018). Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice: Final report (AN ROWS Horizons, 02/2018). Sydney: AN ROWS. Easy English and Auslan versions of the report are also accessible on the MGFV website. Maher, J.M., Spivakovsky, C., McCulloch, J., McGowan, J., Beavis, K., Lea, M., Cadwallader, J. and Sands, T. (2018). Women, disability and violence: Barriers to accessing justice: Key findings and future directions (AN ROWS Compass, 02/2018). Sydney: AN ROWS.
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