When Institutions Fail: Communitarianism and Spotlight

2021 ◽  
pp. 019685992110622
Author(s):  
Chad Painter ◽  
Alexandra Scherb
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Community Media ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
Communitarian Ethics ◽  
The Press

Communitarians argue that social identity is formed through the connection between individuals and their communities. The purpose of this study is to examine how the institution of journalism functions as part of a larger community. Media influence and are influenced by the larger social, cultural, legal, political, and economic systems in which they operate. This textual analysis focused on the breakdown of four Boston institutions—the Catholic Church, the police force, the justice system, and the daily newspaper—depicted in the film Spotlight. These institutions failed their community, allowing decades of sexual abuse to go unrecognized and unpunished—at least until the Spotlight team investigated allegations against Catholic priests. Through the lens of communitarian ethics, the researchers argue that stakeholders must recognize the need for a strong community from which the press can report, explain, correct, and connect.

Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 643-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Terry ◽  
Alissa Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
Abusive Behavior ◽  
Sexually Abusive ◽  
Study Child ◽  
Sexually Abusive Behavior ◽  
The Catholic Church

Research on child sexual abuse often focuses on offenders, particularly on explanations of the etiology and maintenance of their abusive behavior. A recent study by Smallbone and Wortley suggests, however, that research should also focus on the situation in which the sexual abuse occurs. This article employs the situational crime prevention (SCP) framework that they used to study child sexual abusers in Queensland to study patterns of abuse by Catholic priests. Results from the study on the nature and scope of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests support the assertions by Smallbone and Wortley that there is a situational component to sexually abusive behavior. The discussion outlines the steps taken by the Catholic Church as well as other SCP techniques that could be employed to create safe environments.

Trajectories of Abuse and Disclosure

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 570-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Leland Smith ◽  
Andres F. Rengifo ◽  
Brenda K. Vollman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Reporting Structure

The distribution of the incidents of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the United States ( event structure) and the reports of these abuse events ( reporting structure ) present two distinct trajectories, confounding existing individual-level research results. Data from an institutional census of records of abuse between 1950 and 2002 show a steady increase in cases through the late 1970s and early 1980s, followed by a surge in reporting in the mid-1990s and again in 2002. These patterns are stable throughout all regions of the Catholic Church in the United States. Rather than analyze the abuse or reporting from a conventionally individual, psychological framework, this research reframes the analyses for the event structure and the reporting of abuse by priests.

A Compromised Press Delivers Not-So-Hot News

2002 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-395
Author(s):  
Pamela Schaeffer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
Radical Islam ◽  
The Press

Economic shifts in the field of journalism have eroded commitment to principles basic to the integrity of the profession, principles that are also at the heart of Christian ethics: truth-telling and justice, suspicion of privilege, compassion, and support for people who are poor and weak. This declining commitment is exemplified by three major stories missed or downplayed by the press in recent years—the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, the financial improprieties that underlay the downfall of Enron, and the threat to national security posed by the growth of radical Islam and other international forces fomenting anger against the United States.

Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests, Deacons, and Male Members of Religious Orders in the Authority of the German Bishops’ Conference 1946–2014

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 107906321989337
Author(s):  
Harald Dressing ◽  
Dieter Dölling ◽  
Dieter Hermann ◽  
Andreas Kruse ◽  
Eric Schmitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
European Country ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
Worldwide Phenomenon ◽  
Comprehensive Study ◽  
The Catholic Church

This study explores the extent of sexual abuse of minors by members of the Catholic Church in Germany. It is the first comprehensive study to examine this extent in a European country. The goals of this study are as follows: (a) to analyze whether the extent and characteristics of sexual abuse in a European country are comparable to those in the United States and Australia and (b) how discrepancies can be explained. The personnel files of 38,156 Catholic Priests, deacons, and male members of religious orders in the authority of the German Bishops’ Conference were analyzed. The study period lasted from 1946 to 2014. All 27 German dioceses took part in this study. A total of 4.4% of all clerics ( N = 1,670) from 1946 to 2014 were alleged to have committed sexual abuse, and 3,677 children or adolescents were identified as victims. These results are similar to those from comparable studies in the United States. Sexual abuse of minors within the authority of the Catholic Church seems to be a worldwide phenomenon.

Christian unity: the search for ways to achieve

2001 ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Yu. Ye. Reshetnikov
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
The Press ◽  
Christian Unity ◽  
Future Policy

Last year, the anniversary of all Christianity, witnessed a number of significant events caused by a new interest in understanding the problem of the unity of the Christian Church on the turn of the millennium. Due to the confidentiality of Ukraine, some of these events have or will have an immediate impact on Christianity in Ukraine and on the whole Ukrainian society as a whole. Undoubtedly, the main event, or more enlightened in the press, is a new impetus to the unification of the UOC-KP and the UAOC. But we would like to focus on two documents relating to the problem of Christian unity, the emergence of which was almost unnoticed by the wider public. But at the same time, these documents are too important as they outline the future policy of other Christian denominations by two influential Ukrainian christian churches - the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. These are the "Basic Principles of the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to the" I ", adopted by the Anniversary Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Concept of the Ecumenical Position of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, adopted by the Synod of the Bishops of the UGCC. It is clear that the theme of the second document is wider, but at the same time, ecumenism, unification is impossible without solving the problem of relations with others, which makes it possible to compare the approaches laid down in the mentioned documents to the building of relations with other Christian confessions.

Political risks of recovering and discovering meanings in the collective memory of a perverse religious organisation

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-47
Author(s):  
Eduardo Acuña Aguirre
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Influences ◽  
Conversion Event ◽  
Political Risks ◽  
Political Actions ◽  
The Catholic Church

This article refers to the political risks that a group of five parishioners, members of an aristocratic Catholic parish located in Santiago, Chile, had to face when they recovered and discovered unconscious meanings about the hard and persistent psychological and sexual abuse they suffered in that religious organisation. Recovering and discovering meanings, from the collective memory of that parish, was a sort of conversion event in the five parishioners that determined their decision to bring to the surface of Chilean society the knowledge that the parish, led by the priest Fernando Karadima, functioned as a perverse organisation. That determination implied that the five individuals had to struggle against powerful forces in society, including the dominant Catholic Church in Chile and the political influences from the conservative Catholic elite that attempted to ignore the existence of the abuses that were denounced. The result of this article explains how the five parishioners, through their concerted political actions and courage, forced the Catholic Church to recognise, in an ambivalent way, the abuses committed by Karadima. The theoretical basis of this presentation is based on a socioanalytical approach that mainly considers the understanding of perversion in organisations and their consequences in the control of anxieties.

Using a Multisectoral Approach in Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Lessons from a Zimbabwean Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel Muridzo ◽  
Victor Chikadzi
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Child Survivors ◽  
Integrated Service Delivery ◽  
Improved Outcomes ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Role Players ◽  
Areas Of Concern

Child sexual abuse is one of the prevalent social ills that affect children in Zimbabwe. In response to the problem of child sexual abuse and the need to mitigate its adverse effects, Zimbabwe established the Victim Friendly System. The Victim Friendly System is a multisectoral forum made up of social workers, medical doctors, nurses, the police force and role players within the justice system such as magistrates, prosecutors, counsellors, educationists and psychologists. These professionals offer distinctive but complementary interventions to child survivors of child sexual abuse. This paper discusses the merits and lessons gleaned from using the Victim Friendly System as a multisectoral forum to tackle child sexual abuse. In researching this phenomenon, the study adopted a qualitative approach and data were collected from 38 participants and 4 key informants selected using theoretical and purposive sampling respectively. A total of 300 court files of child sexual abuse cases were also reviewed. The findings that emerged from the study show that a multisectoral approach to dealing with child sexual abuse provides the benefit of integrated service delivery. Improved outcomes for victims of sexual abuse as well as streamlined, effective and efficient operations for organisations that form part of the Victim Friendly System were also evident. This notwithstanding, the paper also discusses some areas of concern that could potentially affect how the Victim Friendly System multisectoral arrangement works. The lessons that emerged from the study provide some insights that are useful in informing guidelines for multisectoral arrangements.

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