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Guest Blog: Hope in the Research, Part 2

May 02, 2018 — Categories: , ,

Since 2008, FaithTrust generously has posted on its website a continuing document I compile, Annotated Bibliography of Clergy Sexual Abuse and Sexual Boundary Violations in Religious Communities. Intended to be extensive and broad, the bibliography, as of the semi-annual update of May 1, 2018, is now 1,660+ pages. From the new entries in this 32nd update, the following are notable themes in the literature which deserve attention...

By Rev. James S. Evinger

Since 2008, FaithTrust generously has posted on its website a continuing document I compile, Annotated Bibliography of Clergy Sexual Abuse and Sexual Boundary Violations in Religious Communities. Intended to be extensive and broad, the bibliography, as of the semi-annual update of May 1, 2018, is now 1,660+ pages. This version contains a formatting change which hopefully will assist searches: in Part 2, dedicated sections are added for articles using quantitative and qualitative research methods.

From the new entries in this 32nd update, the following are notable themes in the literature which deserve attention from those who support FaithTrust’s vision and mission.

1. Theme: Global reports of incidents and cases continue to emerge from religious communities typically not covered in U.S.A. news media. In the Bibliography, Part 2, IIa., see the case report, based on qualitative interviews and clinical assessment measures:  McGuigan, William M., & Stephenson, Sarah J. (2015). A single-case study of resiliency after extreme incest in an Old Order Amish family. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 24(5):526-537. As the title indicates, this is an account and analysis of child sexual abuse within an Old Order Amish community, presumably in the U.S.A.  In Part 3, IV. , see:  Pathirana, Saroj. (2012, June 1). [South Asia] Sri Lanka’s hidden scourge of religious child abuse. BBC News. This is a journalist’s account of sexual abuse of minors by Sri Lankan Buddhist monks.

Observation: Disclosure of the truth names the sins and reveals the scope of the phenomena, and is a necessary step toward justice.

2. Theme: Derived from feminist theory, intersectionality is being used in analyses of cases of sexual boundary violations in faith communities. In Part 3, IVd., see:  Edelman, Meredith. (2015). An unexpected path: Bankruptcy, justice and intersecting identities in the Catholic sexual abuse scandals. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 41(2, December):271-287.  Edelman applies intersectionality theory to her topic, stating that “various axes of disadvantage, including gender, race, age, sexuality and social status, have varied effects on the success of plaintiffs in court cases, and that the effects will be different among those plaintiffs for whom multiple axes are present.”

Observation: Utilizing the framework of intersectionality leads to a more profound understanding of the experiences of survivors whose vulnerability is affected by demographic factors which the culture devalues or discriminates against.

3. Theme: Contributions from situational crime prevention theory continue to underscore the relevance of this approach for faith communities. In Part 2, IIa., see:  Leclerc, Benoit, Chiu, Yi-Ning, & Cale, Jesse. (2016). Sexual violence and abuse against children: A first review through the lens of environmental criminology. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 60(7):743-765.  Rather than concentrate on the individual characteristics of offenders who sexually abuse minors, situational crime prevention has a main goal of modifying the environment to reduce opportunities to offend and control precipitators of offenses.  The authors’ analysis of studies includes 2 in which the sexual offenders were clergy.  They offer practical strategies which are within the means of faith communities to apply.  In Part 2, IIb., see:  Amrom, Aria, Calkins, Cynthia, & Fargo, Jamison. (2017). Between the pew and the pulpit: Can personality measures help identify sexually abusive clergy? Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. [Published on-line.]  Their study drew from a sample of 4 groups of Roman Catholic clergy in the U.S.A., 1 group of which were clergy who had been referred for treatment for having committed child sexual abuse.  Using standardized clinical assessment tools, they sought to differentiate the clergy offenders group from the other 3 – clergy referred to treatment for inappropriate but typically noncriminal sexual behavior with adults, clergy referred to treatment for general clinical problems of a nonsexual nature, and clergy undergoing routine employment evaluations with no identified clinical or sexual issues.  Their comparisons confirmed prior research findings “that clergy abusers present as relatively healthy and well-adjusted on personality and psychopathology measures.”  Regarding CSA prevention strategies, instead of focusing on individual-level factors, they recommend focusing resources on “institutional-, systematic, and community-level factors to protect against future victimization within the Catholic Church, other religious institutions, and youth-serving organizations more generally.”

Observation: Effective, evidence-based knowledge and tools for prevention and risk management are available.

4. Theme: The perspective of non-religious professional disciplines adds unique discoveries to the literature. In Part 3, IVd., see:  Bartholomew, Christine P. (2017). [Article] Exorcising the clergy privilege. Virginia Law Review, 103(6, October):1015-1077.  Bartholomew, a law school professor, conducted an empiric study which reviewed 700+ cases in which U.S.A. federal and state court decisions were rendered on the clergy evidentiary privilege, commonly referred to as the priest-penitent privilege, which exempts clergy from providing evidence through their testimony in civil and criminal proceedings.  She found that two-thirds of the time, courts ruled against assertion of the privilege.  Analysis revealed that it was the clergy who declined to assert the privilege on the basis that the communication did not occur when they were acting in their professional capacity, that the communication was not spiritual, and/or the communication was not confidential.  The pattern which emerged, she states, is that the courts relied heavily on the clergy to articulate these factors.  Also reports that a contributing factor was clergy’s self-description of their functioning in roles “as disciplinarians, confronters, informants, mediators, or even neutral bystanders,” adding that “these distinctions frequently arise when congregants are accused of or are victims of abuse.”  The data reveal that clergy’s invoking the privilege is on the decline and is due to courts’ acceptance of clergy’s interpretation of the privilege.

Observation: These evidence-based findings have implications for the direction of public policy regarding the privilege and cases of sexual abuse.

This growth of this Bibliography, which was begun in 1995, is an encouraging sign of the increase in global attention to the problem of sexual boundary violations in faith communities, and of the increase in the quality of knowledge about the problem.

 

About the Author:  
Rev. James S. Evinger is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who worked 10 years in urban congregations, and 30 years in health centers with people with psychiatric illness and developmental disabilities in state institutions in Pennsylvania and New York, and held teaching and research appointments in the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY. He has 24 years of experience with cases of sexual boundary violations in churches, including ecclesiastical, civil, and criminal cases.

 

 

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