Child Sexual Grooming of Catholic Clergy: A Comparison between Victims Allegedly Abused by Clergy with Single versus Multiple Victims.

There is evidence that clergy who commit child sexual abuse (CSA) may utilize sexual grooming behaviors in the offense process consistent with a content-validated model (Sexual Grooming Model; SGM). Although research has examined differences in characteristics between clergy with single versus multiple CSA victims, little is known about how sexual grooming behaviors may vary between these groups. The present study utilized a large sample of alleged clergy sexual abuse incidents ( = 10,667) to examine the differences in reported sexual grooming behaviors for victims who experienced abuse by an individual who had a single (V-SVOs) or multiple (V-MVOs) victims.

The Prevalence of Sexual Grooming Behaviors in a Large Sample of Clergy.

Following the exposure of child sexual abuse (CSA) within the U.S. Catholic Church, it was postulated that many of these cases went unreported because sexual grooming was involved.

Child Sexual Abuse in Organizational Settings: A Research Framework to Advance Policy and Practice.

Recent decades have produced growing public attention to the problem of child sexual abuse (CSA) occurring within civic institutions, school settings, youth sports, religious institutions, and other youth-serving organizations. Often amid considerable media and public scrutiny, such institutions have been called upon to improve their responses to sexual abuse incidents, address underlying organizational conditions that may foster such incidents, and develop viable systems of early intervention and prevention. These system challenges, in turn, have produced growing demand for high-quality research that can refine our understanding of the correlates and dynamics of sexual abuse within institutional settings and can help identify the parameters of effective strategies and responses.

Campus Sexual Assault: Forging an Action-Focused Research Agenda.

In recent years, the problem of campus-based sexual assault has emerged as a prominent matter of concern for institutions of higher education. Amid expanded media attention and a shifting policy landscape, many institutions have grappled with programmatic and legal challenges related to systems of investigation and adjudication of sexual assault cases. Meanwhile, many have worked to develop and deploy proactive preventive measures including those involving bystander engagement, peer-driven interventions, sexual assault awareness campaigns, self-defense programs, and the innovative use of social media and other technology.

Understanding child sexual abuse by Catholic priests from a situational perspective.

Most sexual offense research focuses on offender motivation and individual risk factors rather than the criminal events themselves. This article provides an analysis of data from two studies on child sexual abuse by Catholic priests to help understand the opportunities clergy had or created to abuse youth. Findings show that situational factors played a role in victim choice among a heterogeneous group of abusers.