Tacit Un-Knowledge Among Professionals Dealing with Sexual Abuse of Children and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

In this paper, we are discussing the question of particular attitudes expressed by the professionals (teachers and therapists) in the context of sexual abuse of people (including children) with intellectual disabilities (ID) which we identify as tacit un-knowledge. Drawing from the concept of tacit knowledge introduced by Michael Po-lanyi we are looking closely into some sort of professional passivity and indulgence in reacting to the sexual abuse of people with ID and lack of adequate professional education and training on the other hand. These observations led us to formulate a Polanyi-inspired notion of un-knowledge expressed as a culture-based response to directly or indirectly reported incidents of sexual abuse of people with ID. Data discussed in this paper is a part of a broader research project on sexual abuse of people with disabilities in the narratives of teachers and therapists conducted by one of the authors. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relation-ships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.