Neutralizations and a history of ‘keeping the lid’ on it: how church leaders handled and explained sexual abuse in one diocese

2018

Sex Abuse

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Research has established that sexually abusive priests often use grooming strategies on victims. Recently, researchers have proposed a behavioral taxonomy used specifically by clergy who sexually abuse children. Because this nascent taxonomy has only been studied once using a limited sample of sexually abusive priests, we seek to replicate and expand on its findings using a sample of abusive clergy from a separate institution. Specifically, we analyzed files of 18 monks in Minnesota who were credibly accused of sexual abuse. Using a deductive approach, we searched through these files in an effort to find all instances of eight clergy sexual grooming behaviors that were identified in previous research by Spraitz, Bowen, and Strange. Our findings suggest there is evidence to support the existence of this taxonomy of priest sexual grooming, although we argue that certain aspects of the centerpiece technique of their classification scheme are faulty and must be studied more extensively.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examination of a Nascent Taxonomy of Priest Sexual Grooming

2018

Sex Abuse

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“…Similar to the data collection methods used by and Spraitz, Bowen and Bowers (2016) in their analyses of priests and administrators from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, as well as Spraitz, Bowen, and Arthurs (2017) in their examination of Saint John's Abbey, we performed a retrospective content analysis of unsealed priest files from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet in Illinois, US. Files for 16 Joliet-area priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse against them were made publicly available in early 2014.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposing a Behavioral Taxonomy of Priest Sexual Grooming

Int J for Crime, Justice & Social Democracy

Strange

2018

Sexual grooming is generally thought of as the way that would-be abusers build trust and camaraderie with their victims in order to lower the victims' inhibitions and eventually take advantage of the situation. Minimal levels of empiricism have focused on the sexual grooming patterns of abusive Catholic priests in the United States. In order to help close this gap, we conducted a retrospective content analysis of publicly available documents of credibly accused priests from one diocese in Illinois. Findings suggest that accused priests from this diocese used any of eight grooming techniques in order to abuse their victims; one of these tactics is specific to priest offenders. Using that knowledge, we propose and discuss a behavioral taxonomy of priest sexual grooming as well as the direction that future research should take in assessing this potential taxonomy. KeywordsSexual abuse; priests; Catholic Church; grooming; taxonomy; content analysis. Please cite this article as:

“…Coding of each neutralization example was twofold; we first wanted to separate justifications made by the accused priests from examples of indirect justifications made by anybody else who had contributed documents to the personnel files. Once we separated them, both the direct and indirect instances of neutralization were coded according to our interpretation of Sykes and Matza’s five techniques (for analysis of indirect statements, see Spraitz, Bowen, & Bowers, 2016). One researcher conducted the initial coding and another cross-checked the coding upon completion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techniques of Neutralization and Persistent Sexual Abuse by Clergy

2016

J Interpers Violence

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The sexual abuse problem in the Catholic Church has received considerable attention by the media in recent years and growing attention from empirical researchers. Despite this growth, there is a lack of theoretical research that uses neutralization techniques to examine clergy offending. Using Sykes and Matza's theory, this study examines the techniques of neutralization used by accused priests in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Priests' personnel files, which were made publicly available by the Archbishop of Milwaukee in July 2013, were analyzed retrospectively through a qualitative content analysis of all direct statements and correspondences from the accused. The findings indicate that many priests denied responsibility or injury in an effort to justify their sexually abusive behaviors, but that no discernible patterns of technique use emerged. The need for continued research using recently released personnel files from other dioceses is also discussed.