Child sexual abuse in religiously affiliated and secular institutions: a retrospective descriptive analysis of data provided by victims in a government-sponsored reappraisal program in Germany
Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC Public Health
Abstract
The disclosure of widespread sexual abuse committed by professional educators and clergymen in
institutions in Germany ignited a national political debate, in which special attention was paid to church-run
institutions. We wanted to find out whether the nature of the abuse and its effect on victims differed depending
on whether the abuse had been experienced in religiously affiliated versus secular institutions.
Methods: In 2010, the German government established a hotline that victims could contact anonymously to
describe their experiences of sexual abuse. The information provided by callers was documented and categorized.
Our analysis looked at a subset of the data collected, in order to compare the nature of the abuse experienced at
three types of institutions: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and non–religiously affiliated. Non-parametric tests were used
to compare frequency distributions, and qualitative data were analyzed descriptively.
Results: Of the 1050 victims in our sample, 404 had been in Roman Catholic, 130 in Protestant, and 516 in non-religious
institutions. The overall mean age at the time of reporting was 52.2 years. Males (59.8%) outnumbered females. Victims
who had been in religiously affiliated institutions were significantly older than those who had been in secular institutions.
Almost half the victims had been abused physically as well as sexually, and most victims reported that the abuse had
occurred repeatedly and that the assaults had been committed by males. Patterns of abuse (time, type, and extent), and
the gender of the offenders did not differ between the three groups. Intercourse was more frequently reported by older
victims and by females. Similar percentages of victims in all groups reported current psychiatric diagnoses (depression,
anxiety disorders, PTSD). Significantly more victims from Protestant institutions reported having current psychosocial
problems.
Conclusion: The results suggest that child sexual abuse in institutions is attributable to the nature of institutional
structures and to societal assumptions about the rights of children more than to the attitudes towards sexuality of a
specific religion. The exploratory data arising from this study may serve as a starting point for building hypotheses, and
may point the way toward improvements in prevention and intervention strategies
Description
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Article
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Keywords
International Resources, Germany, youth serving organizations, child sexual abuse, prevention, religious organizations
Citation
Spröber, N., Schneider, T., Rassenhofer, M., Seitz, A., Liebhardt, H., König, L., & Fegert, J. M. (2014). Child sexual abuse in religiously affiliated and secular institutions: a retrospective descriptive analysis of data provided by victims in a government-sponsored reappraisal program in Germany. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 282-294.