Disability and Child Sexual Abuse: Lessons from Survivors' Narratives for Effective Protection, Prevention and Treatment

256 Pages·2009·1.28 MB·English

by  Martina Higgins

Disability and Child
Sexual Abuse
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Disability
and Child
Sexual Abuse
Lessons from Survivors’
Narratives for Effective
Protection, Prevention
and Treatment

Martina Higgins and John Swain
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
First published in 2010
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
116 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JB, UK
and
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright © Martina Higgins and John Swain 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (in-
cluding photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not
transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permis-
sion of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications
for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication
should be addressed to the publisher.
Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in
both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Higgins, Martina.
Disability and child sexual abuse : lessons from survivors’ narratives for effective
protection, prevention and treatment / Martina Higgins and John Swain.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84310-563-3 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Child sexual abuse--Case studies.
2. Children with disabilities--Case studies. I. Swain, John. II. Title.
HV6570.H54 2009
362.4083--dc22
2009017113

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84310 563 3
ISBN pdf eBook 978 0 85700 210 5
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Athenaeum Press, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
Dedication
To our children:
Holly, Anna, Daniel, Sam and Tamsin
Acknowledgements
Our thanks go to the people whose stories are the foundation stones
for this book – Lyn, Josh, Jean, May, Thomas, Chloe and Lizzie.
Without their resilience and determination to tell their stories we
could not have written this book.
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 1 Seven Disabled People with Telling Stories . 21
Chapter 2 Narrative and Enabling Stories of Child
Sexual Abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 3 An Abusive Society? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 4 The Double Whammy Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter 5 Expressions and Survival of Pain . . . . . . . . 83
Chapter 6 Organizational Abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Chapter 7 Who Abuses and Why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Chapter 8 Collective Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Chapter 9 Narratives of the Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Conclusion Towards a Non-Abusive Society . . . . . . . . . 216
REfERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
SUBJECT INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
AUTHOR INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Introduction
To address the sexual abuse of children is to step across the gulf
between the private and personal, and the public and societal. Child
sexual abuse is a violence, which violates lives. It turns the connected-
ness between human beings, the sharing of warmth and tenderness,
into destruction, isolation and fear; humanity turned into inhuman-
ity. Child sexual abuse, then, is not simply an arena for expert knowl-
edge, but is an aspect of human existence that touches all our lives
and challenges our values and beliefs about the society in which we
live.
The power of this book lies in the detailed narratives of a group
of disabled survivors whose circumstances, age and impairments
differ markedly. Their stories reflect the experiences of those who
have been silenced, in the first instance, by child sexual abuse, and
then silenced once again by a society that is not motivated enough
to hear what they have to say. As a result of the clear articulation of
their ever-evolving life story account, their narrative offers unique
perspectives that extend an existing, but limited, knowledge base.
Furthermore, their stories ask professionals to examine their belief
systems and professional practice, asking others to consider the im-
plications of these narratives for therapeutic intervention. This book,
therefore, is intended for both survivors of child sexual abuse and
practitioners alike. It offers hope to those who are coming to terms
with their past, and provides insights for childcare practitioners
working both in the field and within different therapeutic settings.
It is grounded in and generated by a research project conducted
by Martina for her doctorate (Higgins 2006) and supervized by John.
Seven stories, or narratives, are the backbone of this book, told by
 9 
10  Disability anD ChilD sexual abuse
disabled people who have experienced sexual abuse. They talk of
their experiences, the support that they did or did not receive, their
personal relationships and, at heart, the violence that shaped them-
selves and their lives.
In childhood, the barriers to disclosing sexual abuse are numer-
ous and well documented. Disabled children, who are at increased
risk of child sexual abuse, may face extra deterrents when trying to
tell their story. These deterrents are both impairment related and atti-
tudinal. The complex patterns of service delivery, designed to support
and assist disabled children and their families, can create situations
of increased risk. Children placed in segregated educational settings,
for example, can encounter ad hoc placement reviewing procedures
(Morris, Abbott and Ward 2002), and are often isolated from their
friends and family; people who might potentially pick up on the signs
of their distress (Kennedy 1996; Williams and Morris 2003). The ex-
perience of multiple carers, at home or within institutions, means that
disabled children are more likely to encounter abusive adults. Limited
access to appropriate communication tools, for children with speech
and language impairments, cuts off avenues for disclosure (Kennedy
1996; 2002).
These factors are all in addition to the general wearing away of
disabled children’s self-confidence, by the prejudices they encounter
in their daily lives and in different private and public settings. On
a more general level, there is a belief by society that sexual abuse
does not happen to disabled children (Kennedy 2002), an opinion
which has hindered the development of thinking in this area. Similar
to non-disabled survivors, disabled survivors are often only able to
disclose their abuse, and attempt to piece together their personal life
history, in later lif e and in the context of a trusting relationship. This
book aims to expose readers to the stark reality of some disabled
children’s lives. It examines, in detail, the ways in which disabled
children are disempowered and discounted in their encounters with
others. Equally, it illustrates the capacity of disabled individuals to
resist the devastating impact of their abuse and ultimately succeed in
life.