Child Sexual Abuse in the Context of the Roman Catholic Church: A Review of Literature from 1981–2013

Abstract

Child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has been increasingly recognized as a problem not limited to individual institutions. Recent inquiry commission reports provide substantial information on offense dynamics, but their conclusions have not been synthesized with empirical research to date. The aim of this systematic literature review was to bring together key findings and identify gaps in the evidence base. The three main focus points were (a) types of publications and methodology used, (b) frequency information on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, (c) individual factors in offending, and (d) institutional factors in offending. It was found that reports, legal assessments, and research on child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church provide extensive descriptive and qualitative information for five different countries. This includes individual psychological factors (static risk predictors, multiple trajectories) and institutional factors (opportunity, social dynamics) as well as prevalence rates illustrating a high “dark figure” of child sexual abuse.

KEYWORDS:

• CSA
• Catholic Church
• literature review
• institutional child abuse

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank all supporters of the Centre for Child Protection, particularly Msgr. Klaus-Peter Franzl and the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, who are the main financial supporters and are actively involved in the integration of our project into education and training structures of the archdiocese. We would also like to thank our international project partners for their active contribution to the program.

Notes

¹ The term “child” or “children” will be used to refer to children and adolescents below the age of 18 years.

² The sample included clerics who had sexually offended against adults or both adults and children. This subgroup makes up the missing quarter.

³ The studies cited here focused specifically on offenders treated at one U.S. center.

⁴ A discussion of “what counts” as evidence is beyond the scope of this article. For one discussion of how qualitative research can be incorporated into literature reviews, see Dixon-Woods and colleagues (2006).

⁵ Blanchard (2009) points out in his response to comments that it was relative preference for 11- to 14-year-olds over other age groups, not absolute “amount” of arousal that his study of hebephilia focused on to delineate a distinct subgroup.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bettina Böhm

Bettina Böhm, MSc, forensic psychology, is a research staff member at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Ulm. She currently works in the development and evaluation of an e-learning program on the prevention of child sexual abuse while completing her PhD at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Hans Zollner

Hans Zollner, SJ, is the dean of the Institute of Psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome as well as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors of the Holy See. His research focuses on child protection and sexual abuse prevention, the psychology of priesthood and the psychology of religion and spirituality. He is the chair of the steering committee of the Centre for Child Protection and oversees the implementation of an e-learning program on the prevention of child sexual abuse in a worldwide context.

Jörg M. Fegert

Jörg M. Fegert is the medical director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Ulm and the chair of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy at the University of Ulm. As president and member of the steering committees and advisory bodies of various professional associations, he has conducted extensive research in the area of child protection. He has also been asked to provide expertise for the German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

Hubert Liebhardt

Hubert Liebhardt was the head of the research group “Family, Time Policy and E-Learning” at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Ulm and the director of the Centre for Child Protection. He has conducted research and developed various education and training programs in the area of child protection and has been teaching students on medical psychology and sociology as well as professional ethics. He currently works as a police counselor.