Sexual abuse prevention and reporting

This domain covers skills related to sexual abuse prevention and reporting. With the unfortunate reality that prevalence of abuse of people with autism spectrum disorders remains disproportionately high, this domain is of the utmost importance. It includes teaching skills related to recognition of acts that are abusive as well as precursors to these acts from both the point of view of the recipient of the act, and the perpetrator of the act. It also includes skills related to evaluating the safety of a situation in advance of being in the situation. One of the most important skills to teach is a functional protest, and several ways to teach this are outlined in this domain. Finally, while avoiding abusive situations is obviously ideal, it is important that individuals with autism can report unsafe or risky events to a safe person, and accurately recall the events. Skills that cover these areas are included as well.