Child abuse in faith-led institutional contexts of religious nature: the practi-tioners’ perspective

Journal title SICUREZZA E SCIENZE SOCIALI
Author/s Raffaella Sette, Simone Tuzza
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/2 Language Italian
Pages 17 P. 15-31 File size 180 KB
DOI 10.3280/SISS2021-002002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Criminologists increasingly address the problem of child abuse. However, this issue is difficult to explore because of both the vulnerability of the victims and the characteristics of the contexts in which these events usually occur, namely abusive families or institutional contexts (such as schools, recreational and sports centres, ecclesiastical structures). In recent years, some scandals regarding child abuse perpetrated within faith led organisations caught the attention of not only the Anglo-American public. This particular context where child abuse takes place means that this issue should be addressed in many respects. In fact, in specific environments, many fac-tors contribute to making the identification of the abuse difficult which is, for that reason, considerably underreported. Through information obtained from semi-structured interviews and focus groups carried out with some criminologists, social control operators, educators and social workers within the European research project SAFE - Supporting Ac-tion to Foster Embedding of child safeguarding policies in Italian faith-led organi-sations and sports clubs for children" (grant agreement n° 856807), this article will focus on the issue of child abuse in religious and/or faith led organisations with the aim of gathering new elements on the phenomenon, which is characterised by a high dark number, and proposing some intervention strategies to prevent victimisa-tion. The participation of experts and practitioners in the study affirms the rele-vance of the qualitative approach proposed and important to highlight an issue poorly discussed in Italian socio-criminological research.

Keywords: Abuse, minors, faith led organisations, qualitative research, prevention

  1. Ballano Vivencio O. (2019). Sociological perspectives on clerical sexual abuse in the catholic hierarchy. An exploratory structural analysis of social disorganisation. Singapore: Springer.
  2. Blasi A. J. (2020). From causes toward stratagems and theological considerations. In: Blasi A. J., Oviedo L., a cura di, The abuse of minors in the Catholic Church. Dismantling the culture of cover ups. New York: Routledge.
  3. Bohm B., Zollner J.M., Fergert H., Liebhardt H. (2014). Child sexual abuse in the context of the Roman Catholic Church: a review of literature from 1981-2013. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 23, 635-656.
  4. Calkins C., Jamison F., Jeglic E., Terry K. (2015). Blessed be the children: a case-control study of sexual abusers in the Catholic Church. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 33, 4, 580-594.
  5. Connell R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkley: University of California Press.
  6. Death J. (2018). Governing child abuse, voices and victimisation. The use of public inquiry into child sexual abuse in Christian institutions. London: Routledge.
  7. Easton S. D. (2013). Disclosure of child sexual abuse among adult male survivors. Clinical social work journal, 41, 4, 344-355.
  8. Fanci G. (2011). La vittimizzazione secondaria: ambiti di ricerca, teorizzazione e scenari. Rivista di Criminologia, Vittimologia e Sicurezza, V, 3, 53-66.
  9. Feierman J. R. (2020). Sexual abuse of young boys in the Roman Catholic Church: an insider clinician’s acemic perspective. In: Blasi A. J., Oviedo L., a cura di, The abuse of minors in the Catholic Church. Dismantling the culture of cover ups. New York: Routledge.
  10. Gleeson K. (2016). Responsability and redress: theorising gender justice in the context of catholic clerica child sexual abuse in Ireland and Australia. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 39, 2, 779-812.
  11. Higgins D. J., Moore T. (2019). Keeping your eyes on sex, power, relationship, and institutional contexts in preventing institutional child sexual abuse. In: Bryce I., Robinson Y., Petheric W., a cura di, Child abuse and neglect: forensic isssues in evidence, impact and menagement. Cambridge: Academic Press.
  12. Joulain S. (2018). Le cléricalisme et les abus sexuels sur mineurs. Un défi pour pontificat du pape François. Revue d’éthique et de théologie morale, 5, 101-116.
  13. La Fontaine J. (1990). Child sexual abuse. Cambridge, Polity Press.
  14. Keenan J. F. (2012). Child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organisational Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  15. Kraschl D. (2020). Sexual abuse of minors and clerical homosexuality: comments on a puzzling correlation. In: Blasi A. J., Oviedo L., a cura di, The abuse of minors in the Catholic Church. Dismantling the culture of cover ups. New York: Routledge.
  16. McAlinder A. M. (2013). “Grooming” and the sexual abuse of children: institutional, internet, and familial dimensions. Oxford: OUP.
  17. Moore T., Mcarthur M., Roche S., Death J., Tilbury C. (2016). Safe and sound: exploring the safety of young people in residential care. A report for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Commonwealth of Australia.
  18. Moore T., Noble-Carr D., Harcourt D. (2015). Taking us seriously: children and young people talk about safety and institutional responses to their safety concerns. Melbourne: Australia Catholic University.
  19. Rassenhofer M., Zimmer A., Spröber N., Fegert J. M. (2014). Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany: Comparison of victim-impact data collected through church-sponsored and government-sponsored programs. Child abuse and neglect, 40, 60-67.
  20. Rinaldi A. (2018). Dalla parte dei piccoli. Chiesa e abusi sessuali. Molfetta, La Meridiana.
  21. Robinson Y. (2019). Child abuse: types and emergent issues. In: Bryce I., Robinson Y., Petheric W., a cura di, Child abuse and neglect: forensic isssues in evidence, impact and menagement. Cambridge: Academic Press.
  22. Salter M. (2013). Organised Sexual Abuse. London: Routledge.
  23. Sette R., Tuzza S. (2021). Promuovere ambienti educativi sicuri. Prevenire gli abusi nei contesti ecclesiali. Roma: Editrice Ave.
  24. Sipe A. W. R. (1995). Sex, Priests, And Power. Anatomy of a crisis. London, Routledge.
  25. Sykes G., Matza D. (1957). Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency. American Sociological Review, 22(6), 664-670. DOI: 10.2307/2089195
  26. Taillieu C. A., Brownridge N. B., Sarren J., Afifi T. O. (2016). Childhood emotional maltreatment and mental disorders: results from a nationally representative adult sample from the United States. Child abuse and neglect, 59, 1-12. DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2016.07.005.

Raffaella Sette, Simone Tuzza, Abuso su minori in contesti istituzionali a carattere religioso: la parola agli operatori in "SICUREZZA E SCIENZE SOCIALI" 2/2021, pp 15-31, DOI: 10.3280/SISS2021-002002