Building the Evidence

Landmark Research: ‘Building the Evidence’ Report (2008)

The Building the Evidence Project analyses the extent to which current Victorian family violence policy and practice recognises and provides for women with disabilities who experience violence; and makes recommendations to improve responses to women with disabilities dealing with family violence.

The research project was undertaken because we do not know the full extent of violence against women with disabilities because statistics about women with disabilities who experience violence are not collected well. Studies here and overseas suggest it is twice the rate of violence against non-disabled women. Meanwhile, the majority of women with disabilities do not have access to the resources they need to protect themselves from violence. Family violence and family services are not equipped to meet the needs of women with diverse disabilities; and disability services have not been adequately equipped to identify or respond to experiences of family violence.

The research was undertaken as a collaboration between the Women with Disabilities Victoria, the Alfred Felton Research Program at the University of Melbourne, and the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria.

Full report, PDF:
Building the Evidence: a report on the status of policy and practice in responding to violence against women with disabilities in Victoria (PDF 1.81MB)

Full report, Microsoft Word:
Building the Evidence: a report on the status of policy and practice in responding to violence against women with disabilities in Victoria (Word 13.8MB)

Full report, Microsoft Word, no pictures:
Building the Evidence: a report on the status of policy and practice in responding to violence against women with disabilities in Victoria (Word 3.65MB)

Executive Summary, Microsoft Word, 16 font:

Executive Summary, Microsoft Word, 16 font:

Executive Summary, HTML, 16 font:
Building the Evidence – Executive Summary, 16 font (HTML 43KB)

Individual chapters, PDF:

Executive Summary (PDF 73.2KB)

Research at a glance (PDF 691KB)

Recommendations (PDF 80KB)

1 Introduction (PDF 1.12MB)

2 Situating violence against women with disabilities (PDF 202KB)