Sexual Violence against Children with Disabilities: A Danish National Birth Cohort Prospective Study

Children with disabilities are at heightened risk of sexual violence compared to non-disabled peers.

We aimed to examine the associations between ten childhood disabilities and sexual victimization.

Data were drawn from the Danish Psychiatric Case Register, the Criminal Register, and other population-based registers. Children born between 1994 and 2001 (n=570,351) were followed until 18 years of age. Using logistic regression, the association between the disabilities and risk of sexual victimisation was estimated.

We identified 8,860 cases of sexual victimization towards children and adolescents. In the fully adjusted models, children with a diagnosis of ADHD, speech disability and intellectual disability were at highest risk of sexual victimization. Children with comorbid disabilities were particularly vulnerable to sexual victimization.

We found that children with certain types of disability have a higher risk of sexual victimization. Our findings indicate that educational institutions and health care professionals should be aware of and have specialized training in, recognizing and assessing sexual victimization among children with disabilities.