Sexual Abuse of Children in the Church

Child Sexual Abuse and Religious Settings
Abstract
The sexual abuse of children is a sad reality in today’s world. It can happen in many different contexts, cultures, environments, and places. However, one area where child sexual abuse was least expected to be found was in religious settings. The recent abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church showed that child sexual abuse is a problem that needs to be addressed with respect to the very specific context of church environments, precisely because this is a setting that fundamentally requires trust from parents yet, because of the nature of the recent abuses, requires that parents also be on guard. How to navigate this issue is addressed in this present study.
Keywords: child sexual abuse, church abuse, child sex church
Child sexual abuse is a reality in today’s world that has to be addressed by responsible authorities (Murray, Nguyen & Cohen, 2014). What is important to understand, however, is that child sexual abuse can take many forms and definitions, and to truly comprehend the scope of the problem it is necessary to be aware of these forms and definitions and how they do not correspond with existing stereotypes and/or myths pertaining to this problem (Murray et al., 2014). This is especially true when considering the problem in a religious setting, like the Catholic Church, where abuse has been an issue in the past. Parents and children need to know how to identify threats when they appear but also how to balance the problem of being on guard with the need for trust and faith, which the Church requires of its members. This is a particularly difficult problem to examine considering the sensitive nature of child sexual abuse and the history of some Church members. This study will examine the ways that this issue can be effectively navigated and prevented and show how parents and religious authorities can safely address the issue by insisting on transparency and accountability.
Literature Review
As Murray et al. (2014) show, the uncomfortable issue of child sexual abuse is one that has to be discussed in an open and effective manner in order for it to be properly addressed. Their study focuses on defining child sexual abuse and understanding how it can be treated through a variety of methods, including acknowledging symptoms such as depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder among victims. Their study is helpful for illustrating ways to cope with the problem after the fact, but the study is primarily limited to an after-the-fact perspective. Prevention is not an issue that is examined by Murray et al. (2014) and thus there is a need to understand ways that prevention can be achieved especially in settings where children may be more at risk considering recent revelations, as in the Church.
Harper and Perkins (2018) show in their study of child sexual abuse in religious institutions that understanding the psychology of reporting about abuse within institutions can help advance a better framework for dealing with the issue. The researchers examine cases in which abuse was not reported and cases where it was reported and look at the psychological underpinnings of the role players to better understand their approach to the problem. Moral foundation theory and system justification theory served as the two approaches that the researchers identified that explained stakeholder behavior with respect to whether or not sexual abuse was reported or not (Harper & Perkins, 2018). The value of the study was that it helped to show how people might look the other way when child sexual abuse signs are evident in a religious community because of their own psychological framework. The study is limited, however, in terms of identifying a practical strategy for preventing child sexual abuse. Like the study by Murray et al. (2014) it focuses primarily on after-the-fact cases.
Keenan (2013) shows that in some cases the Church has been more interested in preventing scandal or the news of scandal from being disseminated than in actually preventing sexual abuse, and, as a result, abuse can proliferate. The solution that Keenan (2013) identifies for helping stakeholders to effectively address the issue is to place more women in positions of authority. From the standpoint of situational crime theory, Keenan (2013) shows that when men are put into a position of authority over children, the situation is created in which the crime might be perpetrated. By preventing the possibility for the situation to exist in the first place, the risk of abuse developing can be mitigated. This is a helpful solution in theory; however, it is limited in terms of applicability in the Church as this is a male-driven hierarchy where only men are allowed to be priests. It is unclear as to what effect on the community a female-driven hierarchy would have on the environment and whether this is something that stakeholders would be willing to accept.
Plante and McChesney (2011) examine the issue of prevention within the Church from the perspective of celibacy and argue that one of the main drivers of child sexual abuse is pent up sexual frustration among priests and religious because of the vows of celibacy that they are required to take. By de-restricting these vows, Plante and McChesney (2011) assert that abuse would be easier to prevent as it would free priests and religious to pursue healthy sexual relationships instead of having to turn to predatory style sexuality that is surreptitious in order to cloak their designs and intentions. While this is an interesting theory, it is limited in terms of understanding the Church’s approach to religion, the priesthood and sexuality, and it is unlikely that such a preventive method would be adopted by a Church that has essentially maintained the rule of celibacy for two thousand years.
Zamzow (2018) argues that in order for a preventive strategy to work in the Church towards mitigating child sexual abuse, the Church has to open itself to third party investigation and oversight. Instead of handling cases internally, sexual abuse allegations and concerns should be turned over to an independent third party. This would help to prevent abuses and allegations from being left unchecked and would allow better control over potential problems to be achieved. It would encourage openness and transparency. This study is helpful in showing that in order for the issue of sexual abuse to be adequately addressed there has to be more accountability—not just internally but also externally as well.
Abel (2017) shows that another method of prevention is through education—i.e., by promoting workshops and standards that individuals who work with children in a religious setting can attend in order to better understand what to look out for, how to approach a situation, how to report it, and how to help. Workshops and standards programs can be effective ways of communicating the needs of a group and of supporting awareness and accountability among stakeholders.
Discussion
The need for more attention to be given by stakeholders towards sexual abuse of children has been shown by all the researchers identified in this study. Harper et al. (2018) and Murray et al. (2014) both focus on addressing the issue after the fact by counseling and therapy and by understanding the psychology behind those who report and those who do not. These studies are helpful but they do have their limitations in terms of only focusing on strategies for helping offenders and victims. Their studies do not provide strategies for prevention.
Strategies for prevention are offered by Keenan (2013) and Plante and McChesney (2011) but both of their approaches would require churches to change their basic model or alter their nature in some way that most likely would be rejected by stakeholders. In other words, their prevention strategies are impractical and idealistic rather than pragmatic and realistic.
The strategies for prevention suggested by Abel (2017) and Zamzow (2018) offer the best practical approach to reducing the risk of child sexual abuse in religious settings. Their strategies include opening the Church to external reporting, investigation and accountability; and using workshops and standards programs to raise awareness and open lines of communication among stakeholders. These solutions are the best as they are the most practical and likely to be the most implementable while offering the most respect for the institutions and communities that they are designed to help protect.
Conclusion
The problem of child sexual abuse is not one that is going away. It is a global phenomenon and instead of taking an after-the-fact approach to addressing it, stakeholders must become more proactive in terms of implementing strategies to help reduce the risk of child sexual abuse, especially in religious settings. Bettering communication, raising awareness, providing access to external reporting and accounting and holding workshops can all be effective ways of addressing this problem.
References
Abel, T. (2017). Preventing child sexual abuses in your churches. Retrieved from
https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2017/05/Preventing-child-sexual-abuse-in-our-churches
Harper, C. A., & Perkins, C. (2018). Reporting child sexual abuse within religious
settings: challenges and future directions. Child Abuse Review, 27(1), 30-41.
Keenan, M. (2013). Child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church. UK: Oxford
University Press.
Murray, L. K., Nguyen, A., & Cohen, J. A. (2014). Child sexual abuse. Child and
Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 23(2), 321-337.
Plante, T. & McChesney, K. (2011). Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Santa
Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Zamzow, P. (2018). Should churches handle sexual abuse allegations internally?
Retrieved from https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/february-web-only/should-churches-handle-sexual-abuse-investigations-internal.html