Powerful perpetrators, hidden in plain sight: an international analysis of organisational child sexual abuse cases

ABSTRACT

There is virtually no literature on child sexual abuse committed by “powerful perpetrators”, who, use position, reputation, wealth and/or power, to become influential members of their organisation. Seventeen cases relating to youth serving organisations were identified using a comprehensive search of databases covering case reviews from England, Australia and the US. A Quantitative Content Analysis was used to analyse the sample with a focus on identifying offenders’ “modus operandi”. Findings revealed a number of critical differences between powerful perpetrators and other child sexual offenders described in the literature. Findings are discussed in relation to their implications for creating safer youth serving organisations. In particular, focusing on educating YSOs to recognise and address risks posed by powerful perpetrators; expanding organisational safety policies and practices and taking steps to develop a strong, positive organisational safety culture are commended as key approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Child sexual abuse
• organisational abuse
• institutional abuse
• serious case reviews
• inquiries
• modus operandi
• powerful perpetrators

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.