My name is Michelle McCarthy and I'm Reader in Learning Disabilities at the
Tizard Centre, University of Kent. I'm going to talk about a recent research project
into a study that I led on domestic violence against women with learning disabilities.
This is an under-researched topic but we're gradually
learning more - through some qualitative studies done by myself and other people -
what happens to these women when they're in violent relationships.
And whilst doing this research I observed many similarities between the domestic
violence these women experienced and other crimes notably sexual grooming and
a form of disability hate crime known as 'mate crime'. But first some definitions:
Learning disabilities are defined as having an IQ as of less than 70 and that
means a significantly reduced ability to understand new and complex information
and to learn new skills. It means a reduced ability to live independently
and to cope with the tasks of everyday living and it's an impairment that
starts before adulthood but has a lasting effect on development.
And learning disabilities are also known as 'intellectual disabilities', 'developmental disabilities',
and 'intellectual impairment'. It is not dyslexia and other specific
learning difficulties because those things affect people of ordinary
intelligence but I'm referring to people with impaired intelligence.
Disability hate crime is defined by the Crown Prosecution Service as any incidents
which is perceived to be based upon prejudice or hatred of the victim
because of their disability. There is no statutory definition of mate crime but
it's a form of disability hate crime and it's understood to refer to the
befriending and grooming of a vulnerable adult for the purposes of taking
advantage of them, exploiting or abusing them. Research on domestic violence and
women with physical and sensory impairments shows that perpetrators use
the women's disabilities and the associated needs as part of the
pattern of abuse and in this research I wanted to explore whether some common
features of the lives of adults with learning disabilities would also be used
against them. So the kind of factors that perpetrators might exploit are things
like low self-esteem and lack of confidence and compliant behaviour; the
social isolation and loneliness which is common to the lives of adults with
learning disabilities; a lack of knowledge about how to leave a relationship;
where to go, sources of support, etc. The fact that the
women themselves may have had unhappy family backgrounds and difficult
childhoods and for those women who have children, their fears about losing their
children. The research study itself was a qualitative one involving 15 women with
mild and moderate learning disabilities. There was a wide age range from 20 to 67.
They were mostly white British women. Some were married the others were
cohabiting and about half the sample had children.
And just to give a very brief summary of the findings...
The women reported that the domestic violence they experienced
was often severe, frequent and lasted for long periods of time.
Physical violence during pregnancy was very common but there was a whole range
of abuse: so physical, emotional, sexual, financial, psychological abuse.
And there were very high levels of coercive control by the perpetrators and that
included the deliberate isolation of women from their family, their friends,
and other sources of support. And the abuse often continued after the end of
the relationship. So who were the men in these relationships now in our research
we didn't speak to any perpetrators ourselves so the information that we
have about the men comes from the women and the professionals who referred the
women to us - to the research project - and who supported them through the research process.
What we found was that the perpetrators tended
not to have a learning disability themselves but they often had mental
health problems or drug and alcohol problems and sometimes both.
That they were jealous and manipulative. That they would threaten self-harm or suicide if
they they didn't get what they wanted. And they were threatened to murder the
women and indeed the children if the woman didn't do what they wanted.
They often had a history of abusing previous partners and of abusing children;
they were cruel to animals and they often had criminal records and were known to the police already.
And generally speaking, they were older than the women and and
certainly more experienced in terms of relationships.
So how do the women with learning disabilities get together with these types of men?
And what I found was a common pattern where the man would move into the woman's home at a
very early stage of the relationship. And I was interested in 'why?'
Occasionally, that was due to circumstance such as an unplanned
pregnancy and the woman would actually want the man to to be with her to support her.
But more often, it was a form of manipulation taking place.
So the man would be homeless - or he would say he was homeless and that he needed somewhere to stay.
The woman might say, 'well, stay at my place for a few days until you get sorted.'
And he would move in and two days would turn into a week, a week
would turn into a month, and he never left. The women described themselves
as being unable to stand up to that situation - so that they were too soft,
they were easily led; they kind of allowed it to happen. So they described
themselves as being uncomfortable about him moving in so quickly into the
relationship but they didn't feel that they were able to prevent that.
So why might we think of this as grooming and not just as a as domestic violence?
That's because the parallels are very strong: common features of grooming are
understood to be where perpetrators deliberately establish the
relationship for their sole benefit, to the detriment of the victim;
and where there's a clear intent to exploit a vulnerable adult;
and where there's indifference to their suffering. And with mate crime the ruse,
if you like, the kind of 'hook' making the connection to the vulnerable
person is friendship. And in domestic violence the ruse is is love or intimate relationships.
As to why the men targets women with learning disabilities...
Firstly, they are easier to manipulate, probably, than other women.
They're not so likely to expose the illegal activities of the perpetrators
and they're not viewed as credible witnesses by the police or criminal
justice system, if they do. Why are women with learning disabilities particularly
vulnerable to this form of grooming? Well firstly the learning disability itself
leads people to not being very streetwise, not seeing other people's
ulterior motives and taking things at face value. And the women of vulnerable
because they have material resources that perpetrators want: such as their
benefit income and somewhere to live. They're vulnerable because the women are
likely already to be socially isolated which means that they may have few
people to turn to and to confide in when something starts to go wrong, and the
women are likely to highly value a relationship with a non-disabled man.
The label of a learning disability is one that carries some kind of social stigma
with it and people - particularly adults with mild learning disability - are very aware of that.
One way of shaking off that stigmatised label is to
form a relationship with a non-disabled disabled person.
Another reason that these women may be vulnerable is because the perpetrators already know something
about the woman's perhaps difficult family background, or if she has a
history of abuse. Now that may sound a bit far-fetched because how would they know?
But in fact what we found was that many of the women in our study lived in small,
deprived communities where there were lots of connections between people.
In fact in our study of only 15 people, two of the perpetrators had
already had an intimate relationship with a close relative of the woman - in
one case a mother, and another case a sister. So, in fact, they did know things
about the women and about their backgrounds which they could use against them.
And some of the women were single parents, perhaps struggling with raising
their children alone and many welcome, at first, the idea of a partner who might help.
But the children of these women are vulnerable to abuse by these men.
Firstly, all the children were victims of child abuse because forcing a child to
witness domestic violence against their mothers is a recognised form of child abuse.
Research by other people suggests that mothers with learning disabilities
are targeted by those with a history of child abuse, known as schedule 1 offenders.
And domestic violence makes the removal of children from their
mothers with learning disabilities even more likely than it already is which,
unfortunately, is already is fairly likely. So the children suffer from losing their mothers.
So I'll finish this presentation by posing a question:
'Do labels matter? What difference does it make if we call something grooming
or if we call it domestic violence?' And I argue that it does matter
because how we define something and how we understand it partly determines how
we respond to it - both on an individual and a societal level. Generally, adult
women in violent relationships are expected to exert their autonomy and to
make decisions to protect themselves and their children. Help is available, of
course, but they have to reach out for it. No one is going to come into the life of
a mentally competent woman and remove her from a violent relationship.
She has to make that decision herself to leave. However, we understand that vulnerable adults
who have been groomed are often unable to exert autonomy.
And I'll be clear what I'm saying here: I'm not saying that adults with learning disabilities
don't have mental capacity because, clearly, many do. Or that they don't have autonomy.
However, when you're in grave fear of a violent and controlling partner
and you have a learning disability, then it makes
the whole situation much harder to navigate. And you do need help, and you
need somebody to reach out to you. Therefore, I think the agents of the
state, by which I mean the police and health and social care professionals,
need to be much more proactive in trying to protect women with learning disabilities.
These are not just relationships that have gone wrong
I believe these women are targeted by violent men who seek to control them,
who seek to enrich themselves at the women's expense, and who are indifferent to the
pain that they cause. And so it's not good enough just to wait for for the
victims to come looking for help. We should be proactively seeking them out
and offering help. Thank you.