Analysis of the Written Policies of the 32 U.S. Archdioceses on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

ABSTRACT

The Catholic Church in the U.S. has been under concerted public pressure to improve its child protection policies. However, development of these policies has largely been left to the discretion of local dioceses with little central oversight. To determine the scope of current abuse prevention policies, we analyzed all 32 U.S. archdioceses’ policies and practices for developing a safe environment and preventing child sexual abuse. Using a tool developed from a list of unique components selected from the policies of all 32 archdioceses, we compared policies and procedures across archdioceses. On a group level, we found policies to be inadequate. The average score for archdioceses in the general area of prevention was 40.7 (SD = 9.3) out of 102 possible points (40% of possible points) with few prevention policies conforming to basic best practices that would be expected of a youth-serving organization. The variation and inconsistencies across archdioceses reveal the need for the Catholic Church to establish more uniform standards for preventing sexual abuse. These standards should be grounded in evidence-based practices and expert guidance. We also discuss some key areas which warrant immediate attention in future policy-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Child sexual abuse
• Catholic church
• priest abuse
• clergy
• policies
• child abuse prevention
• youth serving organization

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowlege Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota who contracted with CHILD USA to compare the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis with other U.S. Archdioceses. The need to develop an objective way of comparing archdioceses ultimately led to the development of the Policy Analysis Tool

Disclosure statement

Authors declare that they have no conflicts to report.

Notes

¹ We did not include the Archdiocese for the Military in our review as it does not actually have a child protection policy. Instead, the Archdiocese of the Military borrows priests from other archdioceses and requires that they follow the protection policies of the archdiocese in which they normally reside.

² In the Boston Archdioceses some referrals of priests to Rome for laicization have been pending for over 17 years (Green, 2019).

³ Between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018, Catholic dioceses reported paying over 20 million dollars for the support (including living expenses, legal expenses, therapy, etc.) of clergy who committed misconduct with minors (Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and the National Review Board, 2019, p. 60; Woodall, 2018).

⁴ We could not find a more recent report as apparently the USCCB is no longer providing information about the background of recently accused priests; however, in 2016 the USCCB noted a significant number of new abuse allegations involve international priests working at U.S. dioceses (Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and National Review Board, 2016, p. 4).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephanie J. Dallam

Stephanie Dallam, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Social Science Department at CHILD USA, Philadelphia, Pa; and a co-founder of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence.

Marci A. Hamilton

Marci A. Hamilton, JD, is the founder and CEO of CHILD USA. She is also a Professor of Practice at the Fels Institute of Government and a Resident Senior Fellow in the Program for Research on Religion at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Sabine A. Glocker

Sabine A. Glocker, M.S., Esq, formerly part of the Legal Department at CHILD USA, is now a Judicial Law Clerk at the Family Court, First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Andrew J. Ortiz

Andrew J. Ortiz, MS, is a researcher in the Social Science Department at CHILD USA, Philadelphia, PA.