Disability research often favours the use of disabled researchers carrying out research with disabled participants. It is believed to empower disabled people and create results that are more valid. However, little consideration has been given to the ethical implications of this type of research process, including in relation to female researcher…

Understandings of disability are situated within social, political and economic circumstances. Internationally, medical conceptualisations of disability prevail, influencing policy and practice, creating a discourse which encourages categorisation, diagnosis and prescribed ways of understanding behaviour. This body of knowledge has a profound…

Child services organisations need policies that minimise the risk of sexual abuse of the children in their care. In particular, managers (and the public) are justifiably concerned when abuse is perpetrated by individuals who should not have been working with children in the first place. Unfortunately, there has been relatively little work on…

This study investigates the variations in characteristics that exist among youths who sexually harm (YSH). Three conceptually distinct sets of background characteristics are hypothesized from the literature relating to whether the YSH was abused, delinquent or impaired. Forty-one characteristics were drawn from an extensive and detailed review of…