How to Study Child Sexual Abuse Within the Institutional Framework? The Experience of the Catholic Church in Poland

Abstract

Sexual abuse as a manifestation of personality disorders and a crime is shaped and committed in a specific social environment. The Institute for Catholic Church Statistics was the first in Poland to undertake systematic research on the problem of child sexual abuse. The scope of this research concerns the acts committed within Catholic organizations by priests and religious. In this chapter, we present Polish research on abuse and characterize the organizational framework of the Catholic Church in Poland. We highlight the public importance of research on child sexual abuse by priests. The focus of the chapter, however, is devoted to the methodological issues of quantitative sociological research on the sexual abuse of minors within Catholic organizations. We discuss the basic assumptions, methods and scope of collected data that concerns Poland. In an accessible and understandable way for a reader who has no knowledge of social sciences, we ­explain how the facts of child abuse by priests and religious are studied in Poland.