When Protection Fails: Institutional Barriers and Sexual Violence Impunity Among Students with Disabilities in Higher Education

Abstract

Sexual violence in higher education disproportionately affects students with disabilities, yet this intersection remains underexplored. This study examines how university protection policies against sexual violence are translated into institutional practices for students with disabilities in Indonesian higher education, and how the structural failures of that translation contribute to the production of impunity. Employing a qualitative multi-site design informed by institutional ethnography, the study was conducted across 28 higher education institutions in six provinces, involving 8 students with disabilities, 11 victim advocates, 36 Satgas PPKPT members, and disability service unit staff through in-depth interviews, document analysis, and seven focus group discussions. Findings reveal that while formal regulatory compliance with Permendikbudristek 55/2024 has progressed, substantive protection for students with disabilities remains unrealized: only one institution had developed disability-specific case-handling procedures, and none had established accessible reporting mechanisms. Five institutional failures converge to produce impunity: inaccessible reporting systems, fragmented coordination, hierarchical decision-making delays, credibility bias against disabled complainants, and reputation-driven case management. Integrating disability studies, institutional ethnography, and the sociology of impunity, this study argues that impunity is produced not through the absence of policy but through the systematic gap between policy as text and policy as practice, widened by epistemic injustice, deepened by institutional betrayal, and sustained by organizational self-protection.