The sad fact is that children are often targeted by predators. Disabled children as well. What happens when a child with a developmental disability brings that accusation forward? Are the courts prepared? I hadn’t really thought about it until I read an abstract for a paper just released from a group in Sweden: Sexual abuse allegations by children with neuropsychiatric disorders. I haven’t read the full paper yet, and the abstract isn’t clear to me. One part of the abstract that I found troubling was the lack of psychiatric expertise available in many court cases, which raises the question of how ready are the courts to ascertain the reliability of witnesses with developmental disabilities such as autism, intellectual disability and similar conditions.
I’d be very interested if anyone could point me to sources of good information on these questions, especially within the US.
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