1 Asia-Pacific E-Journal of Health Social Science https://sites.google.com/site/asiapacificejournalofhss/. December 2013. Volume 2, Number 2. All rights reserved. ISSN 2244-0240 Research Brief Sexual Abuse among Persons with Development Disabilities Michael Louie C. Celis University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines, mlccelis@yahoo.com Generally, people with developmental disabilities (PDD) are secluded from and discriminated by the society due to their health condition; seen as powerless and dependent; estranged from the public at large; and deprived of chances for education and other valuable life experiences. This marginalization increases the risk of PDD to sexual abuse. Studies suggest that sexual abuse and assaults stem primarily out of anger and/or a need of one to feel powerful (Wisconsin Coalition against Assault, 2003). Thus, offenders take advantage of and abuse persons who they see and feel as defenseless and unprotected from available services and support. Several special education programs, since they encourage students to be obedient in a wide range of life activities, are also helping increase the vulnerability of a person, including PDD, to abuse (Turnbull et al., 1994). Sexual abuse, as defined by American Psychiatric Association (2013), refers to an unwanted sexual activity in which a perpetrator uses force, makes threats, or takes advantage of a victim unable to give consent. Sexual abuses come in various forms, such as forced sexual or object penetration, sexual touching, incest, consensual or non-consensual sex with minors, and voyeurism. Developmental disabilities, as classified under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM – 5), is a collection or group of psychological, psychiatric, and emotional conditions characterized by deficits in personal, social, academic or occupational functioning. The sources are attributed to impairments from the growth and development of the brain and/or the central nervous system during infancy, childhood or across a developmental stage of life. In such a developmentally-challenged condition, there is a reduction or impairment of cognitive functions, because of physical changes that occur in the brain, such as genetic and congenital problems, maternal exposure to drug use during pregnancy, drug-overdose during childhood illness, hormonal imbalances, or traumatic brain injury. Generally, people with developmental disabilities also have difficulty in maintaining stable emotions and memory, and they engage in the high-level learning processthus, people suffering from such disorders are clustered within the same group of other psychiatric conditions, where cognitive and judgment abilities are limited. PDD often do not recognize or know that sexual abuse is abusive and illegal. As a result, they may not tell anyone concerning the sexual abuse that they themselves experience. Furthermore, PDD typically do not challenge their caregivers or others who are in power such as their sexual abusers. Sexually abused PDD continue to suffer in silence and their voices are largely under-represented in various discourses. This paper briefly discusses sexual abuse among PDD. Data were drawn from published articles featured in electronic databases, such as EBSCO, ERIC, JSTOR, Medline, Proquest, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO and Science Direct. “Sexual abuse” and “sexual assault” were the main keywords used while terms such as “mentally challenged”, “mental disability”, “mentally retarded”, “cognitive problems”, “developmental disability”, and “victims” were alternatively used. The literature search was restricted to materials published in 1990s until the present. Most studies generated from the search focus on sexual behaviors among mentally challenged individuals, health risks behaviors among post-abuse victims and persons with post- traumatic stress disorders, and sexual orientation of PDD. Despite being a critical area in the discourse of health and human rights, sexual abuse among PDD is a largely unexplored problematique. The few studies presented here are predominately from the US. In a systematic review of the prevalence of sexual abuse among PDD, Johnson & Sigler (2000) estimated that as many as 83% of the females and 32% of the males are victims of sexual assault. At the same time, they noted that women with disabilities are raped and abused at a rate of at least twice that of the rate among the general population of women (National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, 2013). A US national study suggested that between 39% and 83% of females and between 16% and 32% of males with developmental disabilities are likely to