ABSTRACT
Children and young people’s sexuality remains a taboo topic for many. In contrast, concern to keep children and young people safe from sexual abuse is at the forefront of government and civil society policy interventions on the international stage and at the community level. Policy and practice responses are framed by a top-down responsibility model, which implores adults to protect the country’s children and to create environments to keep children safe. Children and young people with disabilities are at much greater risk of sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers, yet they are absent in the discourse on “preventing” sexual abuse of the younger generation. This chapter investigates why this is so, from a historical socio-cultural perspective, using the case of one country, Australia, and within the context of disclosures revealed in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse January 2013–December 2017. This chapter wrestles with the virtual absence of children and young people with disabilities from disability and sexuality discourse.
(child sexual abuse, vulnerability, disability)
