Book Review Edited by Marjorie Keys Disability and Child Sexual Abuse: Lessons from Survivors’ Narratives for Effective Protection, Prevention and Treatment by M. Higgins and J. Swain, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2009. 256pp. ISBN 978-1-84310-563-3 (Pbk), £22.99 This book does not make easy reading. The authors themselves note that it ‘may be a difficult book to read, and was certainly a difficult book to write’ (p. 216). It is based around the accounts of seven disabled adults who were sexually abused in childhood. The shared themes in their narratives are carefully considered from the perspective of the social model of disability. Through this approach, the book examines how society places disabled children in situations of unacceptable risk and makes it more difficult for them to tell their stories and to be kept safe. The increased risk of abuse faced by disabled children is now widely accepted, if poorly understood. We have known for more than a decade that disabled children are three to four times more likely to be abused (Sullivan and Knutson, 1998, 2000). We have no right to be surprised or shocked any more. Martina Higgins and John Swain look at what makes for abusive and non-abusive societies and consider the impact of prejudice and discrimination on both risk and identity. A chapter on organisational abuse shows how easy it is for abusive environ- ments and practices to evolve. The absence of any stories from people with learning disabili- ties is a concerning omission, both because this is the most common childhood impairment and because learning disabled children are known to be particularly vulnerable to abuse. The authors report significant efforts to engage learning disabled adults, but without success. At least four of the seven survivors were over 40 at the time of interview, and the experiences of disabled children growing up in Britain today are in many ways very different. This is not to suggest that prejudice, oppression and disadvantage have disappeared, but long-term shifts in service provision mean that segregated educational provision and the institutionalisation of children are significantly less common. Finally, there is no mention of recent changes designed to enable vulnerable and intimidated witnesses to give their best evidence in the criminal justice system. This book places powerful individual narratives firmly at its centre, which gives it significant strength and credibility. One of the survivors gives his own perspective on the links between disability and abuse: ‘I think it’s like having a double whammy; you know, you’re hit once with your disability . . . then to get that on top, you’re being hit twice’ (p. 72). If we are to achieve the authors’ hope of creating ‘a society in which the double whammy is part of the history of man’s ‘The increased risk of abuse faced by disabled children is now widely accepted, if poorly understood’ ‘Significant efforts to engage learning disabled adults, but without success’ ‘This book places powerful individual narratives firmly atits centre’ Child Abuse Review Vol. 21: 70–71 (2012) Published online 29 September 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/car.1144 Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.