SUBMISSION

Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability: Criminal justice system issues paper

This submission outlines ANROWS research relevant to the treatment of people with disability in the criminal justice system in response to a call for input by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (“the Royal Commission”). 

The Royal Commission identified that people with disability are overrepresented in the criminal justice system in Australia and face increased risk of experiencing violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation within the system. ANROWS responds to select questions in the Royal Commission’s Criminal justice system issues paper, with a focus on the treatment of people with disability who are perpetrators or victims and survivors of domestic and family violence (DFV) and are interacting with the criminal justice system.

ANROWS’s submission discusses the following:

• The causes of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability in the criminal justice system, and how these could be avoided
• Potential approaches to avoid the unnecessary engagement of people with disability with the criminal justice system
• The factors that prevent people with disability from accessing protection and justice from police and/or the court system
• Potential supports to enable people with disability to engage with the criminal justice system on equal footing to those without disability
• The intersection of geographical, social and cultural factors that influence the experience of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation for women with disability
• The experiences of First Nations people with disability engaging with the criminal justice system
• The barriers to identifying, disclosing and reporting incidents of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in the criminal justice system.

The Royal Commission has since released an overview of the responses received to the Criminal justice system issues paper, which explicitly identified three key points made by ANROWS:

• The incarceration of First Nations mothers can exacerbate intergenerational trauma and disrupt communities.
• Women with disability may be dependent on perpetrators for care, or dependent on their caregivers to lodge complaints about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
• Women with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, LGBTQ+ and intersex people, and women living in institutional settings face particular disadvantage in access to services.

 

 

Suggested citation

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2020). Re: Criminal justice system issues paper [Submission]. ANROWS.