Inclusion Daily Express -- Report: Women With Disabilities At Higher Risk Of Intimate Partner Violence

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Report: Women With Disabilities At Higher Risk Of Intimate Partner Violence
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 28, 2008

ATLANTA, GEORGIA--Women with disabilities are nearly twice as likely as those without disabilities to experience a physical assault from a spouse or intimate partner, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study's leader, Dr. Brian Armor, presented his findings Monday at the American Public Health Association's Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Armor and his colleagues analyzed data from a large nation-wide telephone survey conducted in 2006.

They found that 37.3 percent of women with disabilities reported experiencing intimate partner violence compared to 20.6 percent of women without disabilities.

Twenty-nine percent of women with a disability said they had been threatened with violence, compared to 15 percent of women without a disability. And 31 percent said they had been hit, slapped, pushed, kicked or otherwise physically assaulted by an intimate partner, compared with 16 percent of women without disabilities.

Also, nearly 20 percent of women with disabilities said they had been forced by an intimate partner to engage in unwanted sex, compared with about eight percent of women without disabilities.

Armor said much more needs to be done to find out why women with disabilities are victimized so often.

"Perhaps, women with disabilities are vulnerable to intimate partner violence because their disability might limit mobility and prevent escape; shelters might not be available or accessible to women with disabilities; the disability might adversely affect communication and thus the ability to alert others or the perpetrator might control or restrict the victim's ability to alert others to the problem."

He added that "initiatives designed to reduce intimate partner violence" must "explicitly include the needs of adults with disabilities."

Related:
"Disability is Associated with Intimate Partner Violence (American Public Health Association)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/2008/red/1028b.htm

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