People with disabilities face 1.5 times more violence than people without disabilities.^[1][2] The perpetrators are often people known to the person with disabilities, such as their partners, family members, friends, or acquaintances. It is estimated that 15% of the world's population lives with disability and are more likely to be poor and socially excluded. Thus violence against people with disabilities has many dimensions.^[3]

As mentioned by Powers and Oschwald,^[4] there are seven categories of abusive behavior defined by both male and female individuals who have some form of disability: physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal or emotional abuse, neglect or withholding support, financial abuse, manipulation of medications, and destroying or disabling equipment.^[2]

Age plays a major factor when looking into non-institutionalized violence. Children with disabilities are three to four times more likely to be victims of violence.^[7] Children with disabilities often face myriad physical, social and environmental barriers to full participation in society, including access to health care, education and other support services. They are also thought to be more vulnerable towards violence than children without disabilities. Understanding the extent of violence against children with disabilities is paramount in developing effective programmes to prevent them from violence and to improve their health and the quality of their lives in general.^[8]

In the US, those between the ages of 12 and 15 who have a disability experience violence at a rate of 144.1 out of 1000 persons compared to their non-disabled peers at a rate of 38.8 out of a thousand with a rate difference being 105.3.^[6] Disabled teens ranging from the ages of 16 to 19 experience violence at a rate of 86.6 out of 1000 persons compared to their non-disabled peers at the rate of 31.4 out of 1000 persons.^[6] Examining the age ranges of 20 to 24, and 25 to 34 collectively to represent a person's twenties to mid thirties, the data shows that people with a some form of disability in that age range goes at a rate of 147.9 out of 1000 persons compared to 55.9 to their non-disabled peers with a rate difference of 92 out of 1000.^[6]

Women with disabilities face forms of violence faced by non disabled women and other disabled persons, but there are some forms of gender based violence that they face in particular. They experience a wider range of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.^[9] This can be by support workers, healthcare providers, family and strangers, and occurs throughout their life, from childhood and adolescence into late adulthood.^[10]

Violence against women and girls with disabilities fall into a number of policy gaps because of the inability to deal with the intersectional nature of the violence that these women experience.^[11]

Forms of violence against women with disabilities can include withholding of assistive devices, such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, and white canes,^[12] which may limit mobility and interaction with other people and creates a sense of powerlessness and dependency.^[10] Other forms include domestic violence; financial, verbal and emotional abuse; and human trafficking.^[13]

Disabled women, particularly those with intellectual disabilities, are more likely to be pressured or coerced into forced sterilizations.^[14]

On numerous occasions, disabled women have also been denied access to public spaces, or have been harassed for their presence in these spaces. Similar cases have been reported in India.^[15][16]

• Mental disorder § Violence
• Sexual abuse and intellectual disability
• Ableism