Breaking the Links Between Poverty and Violence against Women: A Resource Guide (pdf)

"This resource guide explores the ways in which poverty and violence are linked. It acknowledges the efforts of women’s groups, community organizations and service agencies that support low-income women to take control of and deal with the poverty and violence in their lives. Another area of focus is to inspire community-based groups to take action on poverty and violence issues by providing practical examples of what others are doing."

Confronting the Sexual Abuse of Women with Disabilities

This VAWnet paper provides a brief summary of the research on sexual abuse of women with disabilities. The document also covers the origins of our knowledge concerning the sexual abuse of women with disabilities, the methodological quandaries related to sexual abuse research in general and the data on women with disabilities and the men who abuse them, and concludes with an exploration of the efforts of women with disabilities and their allies to counter sexual abuse.

Elder Abuse Speaker's Kit (pdf)

A resource kit for protecting older people and people with disabilities.

First Response to Victims of Crime Who Have a Disability (pdf)

"This handbook was created for law enforcement officers on how to approach and help crime victims with disabilities. It offers guidance and tips on approaching and interacting with victims who have Alzheimer’s disease, mental illness, or mental retardation, or who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, or hard of hearing."

Individual-Systemic Violence: Disabled Women's Standpoint (pdf)

"This article explores reasons for the systemic omission of women with disabilities from mainstream research and from services addressing non-disabled women's experiences."

Interpersonal Violence and Women With Disabilities: A Research Update

"This article provides an update on what researchers have learned during the past ten years about abuse and women with disabilities and offers some perspectives on the state of current research and its implications for future studies and advocacy efforts."

Serving Women with Developmental Disabilities: Strategies for the Justice System

Women with developmental disabilities experiencie a far higher rate of sexual assault and rape than other women, and experience this victimization repeatedly. This article explores some of the issues facing police, prosecutors, judges, advocates, and other members of the criminal justice system, and provide some suggestions for how they can better serve women with developmental disabilities.

Stories from Women with Disabilities

Real stories from women with disabilities. Each of them has survived abuse. Some talk about how they were abused by a parent or family member, others tell about abuse by a partner or husband, or by someone else. Some women already had a disability when they were abused, while for others, the abuse caused a disability.

Study Reveals Unique Issues Faced by Deaf Victims of Sexual Assault (pdf)

"Describes findings of a study describing some of the unique barriers faced by deaf victims seeking help and offering recommendations for improving the relationship between law enforcement and the deaf community."

Violence against women with a disability (pdf)

A recently published study on violence against women with disabilities in Belgium. The report illustrates the current state of research in this area, as well as established preventative methods.

Violence in the Lives of Persons who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

"This new Special Collection offers information regarding the experiences and needs of individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing and victims/survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence. The collection seeks to increase knowledge and understanding of deaf culture, provide resources to assist professionals working directly with deaf individuals, and highlight best practices."

Working with Victims of Crime with Disabilities

This is a product of the Symposium on Working with Crime Victims with Disabilities, funded by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and coordinated by the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). They developed recommendations for OVC and the victim assistance field on improving the response in serving crime victims with disabilities.