This study looked at the adult protection monitoring data collected by two local authorities comparing referrals for alleged sexual abuse to referrals for other types of abuse. The authors found that over 20% related to alleged sexual abuse, with 66% of these for women. Sexual abuse was confirmed in just over a 25%. They conclude that monitoring data can be used for risk management purposes and suggest that including detailed case characteristics would improve the identification of patterns of risk.

Patterns of Risk in Adult Protection Referrals for Sexual Abuse and People with Intellectual Disability, Cambridge, P. et al, in Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 24: 118–132