Investigating The Sexual Abuse Towards Individuals with Mental Disability through Cases That Are Reflected in National Wire Services

Abstract

While sexual abuse may be encountered in all societies without regards to age or gender, individuals with intellectual disability are among the risk groups in terms of sexual abuse. Our study aimed to investigate sexual abuse towards individuals with intellectual disability through cases that are reflected in national wire services. The qualitative research method of document analysis was used to obtain the data in the study. In this context, a search was made in the archives of national wire services. The news articles that were reached were analyzed by the method of content analysis based on the categories determined by the researchers. The frequency analyses were carried out using the SPSS 22.0 package software. It was seen that most intellectual disabilited individuals who were subjected to sexual abuse were female individuals at the ages of 12 to 17. The rate of being subjected to sexual abuse was found to be higher among individuals with disability degrees of 50% or higher. Almost all abusers were male and those who were previously known by the individual with intellectual disability. The rates of sexual abuses that were carried out by taking advantages of the disability of the victim were higher than those carried out by physical violence. The finding of our study that sexual abuse acts were seen more frequently in the victims’ adolescence period and that the majority of these acts were carried out by taking advantage of the victims’ disability indicates the necessity of sexual education programs that aim to develop awareness in individuals on sexual abuse.