Abstract
Endemic sexual violence and abuse has been observed in a number of specific circumstances, most notably conflict zones, remote and marginalised communities, and religious and state institutions. In this article we examine several documented examples and argue that a similar set of causal processes are at work in all of these otherwise apparently disparate circumstances. Rather than construing the problem as ‘organised’ sexual abuse, we present the problem in terms of the breakdown (or disorganisation) of usual individual, situational and ecological constraints.
Highlights
Dramatic increases in the incidence and prevalence of sexual violence and abuse (SVA) have been observed in some specific circumstances: in particular places and often over particular periods of time
Males can learn to become very effective caregivers, but nurturing motivations for males are more instrumental (Panksepp 1998) and are more susceptible to competing motivations, including self‐serving and sexual motivations. We argue that these universal biological foundations of male social and sexual behaviour, their stronger predisposition to sexual aggression and weaker predisposition to nurturing, help to explain why males are more likely than females to exploit vulnerable others for sexual purposes, and why sexual motivations are more likely to arise for males in everyday social interactions with vulnerable others, including children
Though incidents involving individual abusers may continue to occur from time to time, this recent era of endemic sexual abuse in the Catholic Church may have been effectively ended by the external scrutiny to the problem
Summary
Dramatic increases in the incidence and prevalence of sexual violence and abuse (SVA) have been observed in some specific circumstances: in particular places and often over particular periods of time. In 2000, a New Zealand police investigation code‐named Operation Unique uncovered child sexual abuse on Pitcairn Island spanning at least 40 years and involving almost the entire population (47 at the time of the trials in 2004) These abuses included violent rapes, gang rapes and assaults on children as young as five, committed by adult and adolescent male residents. While the responses of various diocese varied – those that took direct action in response to allegations generally evidenced fewer allegations than others (Terry 2008) – a general culture of self‐protection appears to have predominated, with familiar stories of leaving accused priests in ministry positions involving ongoing contact with children, transferring them to new parishes ignorant to the risk, and dissuading victims from reporting abuse to police (Dale and Alpert, 2007). Though incidents involving individual abusers may continue to occur from time to time, this recent era of endemic sexual abuse in the Catholic Church may have been effectively ended by the external scrutiny to the problem
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