Abstract
Child sexual abuse is a social problem that concerns our societies. The sustainable development goals have highlighted the eradication of child sexual abuse as one of the highest-priority goals of this century. Breaking the silence within religious communities is an essential step going forward. Therefore, establishing a dialogue between people of different religions is crucial to achieving this goal. The purpose of this article is to explore whether there are current interreligious dialogue initiatives based on scientific recommendations to prevent child sexual abuse. The method used herein is a qualitative document analysis of the selected initiatives. The results indicate that interreligious dialogue initiatives include scientific recommendations in their prevention programs. Furthermore, these successful initiatives connect religious values and the need to support victims and to break their silence. Based on these results, it can be concluded that interreligious initiatives for child sexual abuse prevention programs based on scientific evidence are crucial in order to eradicate child sexual abuse.
Highlights
Breaking silence within religious communities is an essential step to prevent and address child sexual abuse (CSA)
The results of this study show that the interreligious initiatives selected and analysed include scientific recommendations to prevent child sexual abuse
The social commitment to overcoming child sexual abuse has increased over the past years
Summary
Breaking silence within religious communities is an essential step to prevent and address child sexual abuse (CSA). According to Rudolfsson and Portin (2018), the sexual abuse survivors in a congregation need to experience appropriate conditions and feel that victims’ needs and concerns are in focus and not left behind. Additional research identifies that the discourse underlying religion as the root of violence does not help end violence (Miller 2020). People use religious values in different ways. Evangelical mothers may use evangelical ethics or biblical messages from a transnational and multicultural perspective (Jung 2020). Research needs to focus on how religion could be part of the solution, and interfaith communities have enormous potential to contribute to this aim (Miller 2020)
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