Abusive ideologies and structural risks that contribute to violence towards disabled people Abusive ideologies Evidence has been available for some time that tāngata whaikaha Māori and disabled people are exposed to risks additional to the usual dynamics of power and control inherent in family and intimate partner relationships. This is due to the unique circumstances in which many disabled people live, and the power imbalances these can create. The Council of Europe is an international organisation of 47 member states, formed in 1949, to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. It identifies that there are: ...“abusive ideologies” that reinforce and perpetuate the likelihood of persons with disabilities experiencing exploitation, violence and abuse. Among the many factors...are the following: • public perception and hostility or indifference • perception as “easy targets” • lack of understanding of “disability” • ignorance and poor training of staff, particularly for persons with complex needs or challenging behaviours • lack of accountability • lack of knowledge and inadequate access to discrimination prevention and accountability.100 Myths and low knowledge of rights create risks Myths and societal misunderstandings of disability increase the risk of violence occurring and of no, or inadequate, response to disclosures. For example, the myths about disabled people as asexual, innocent and dependent, combine with social stereotypes about gender and disability101 to reinforce concepts of the inferior status of disabled people. This leads to further myths, such as that disabled people – and in particular people with learning disability – are not affected by sexual and other abuse as they are used to it and/or don’t understand it.102 Research identifies that disabled people’s risk of sexual and other violence is affected by: • societal myths that infantilise disabled people, portray them as non-sexual or hyper-sexual, or not harmed by sexual violence103 • the exclusion of disabled children from sexuality and healthy relationship education and knowledge104 • lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services105 • learnt compliance with authority/carers106 • being accustomed to very intimate handling which can make it difficult for people to differentiate between acceptable and abusive handling and behaviours. This is expressed in research where participants talk about for example, the difficulty of judging when vaginal washing moved from “wash[ing] good [to] too much or too hard”.107 Te Ohaakii a Hine – National Network Ending Sexual Violence Together (TOAH- NNEST) is the national network of those providing specialist services for sexual violence prevention and intervention. It identified that: Some disabled people experiencing abuse may not understand that what is happening to them is abuse (abuse is normalised); have the ability to report the abuse; know who they can tell about the abuse; know how to tell someone about the abuse; feel confident to tell someone about the abuse because they are fearful of repercussions or may not want to get the abuser in trouble. Acting now for a violence and abuse free future 35