Safeguarding children with disabilities: a life course perspective

Abstract

Abuse of children with disabilities occurs at significantly higher rates than for their majority population peers. Compounding this are complex barriers to effective professional safeguarding. Rather than viewing this as a matter exclusively about childhood, maltreatment ought to be conceptualized as occurring across a wider life course trajectory for children who are victimized. To achieve this broader perspective, lifespan effects will be understood through the critical application of seminal developmental lifespan theories. Moving forward, the complexity that underlies persistence, in disproportionately higher rates of maltreatment of children with disabilities, should be considered relevant across a long and varied life course.