Theorizing disability in child protection: applying critical disability studies to the elevated risk of abuse for disabled children

Abstract

The assumption that addressing disability-related child protection risks is the preserve of child protection academics, is perhaps the basis of the dearth of theoretical papers emerging from disability studies, on what is an intercontinental and evidently substantial problem for disabled children and their families. Disabled children are over-represented in their contact with child protection professionals, and in their likelihood of availing of out-of-home placements. Moreover, this is aligned to strong research evidence around a significantly enhanced risk of experiencing all kinds of abuse. The lack of explicitly non-tragedy perspectives on disability in this area risks perpetuation of discourses of misfortune and lack. Whilst overall, insufficient quantity of knowledge exists on the subject area. Selective use of theoretical insights from the proliferating field of Critical Disability Studies in this paper relieves the scarcity of theorisation around the identified problem of disproportionately high risk of abuse and neglect for disabled children.