Speaker: Karen Terry, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York - ResearchGate

Abstract: »In 2002, the topic of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church came to the forefront in the United States. In response, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a study to evaluate the Nature and Scope of the problem. The findings of that study, published in 2004, showed that approximately 4 percent of priests had allegations of abuse against nearly 11,000 youths. The peak of this abuse crisis was in the 1960s-1970s, with declining rates of abuse from the mid-1980s. This study, along with a subsequent study on the causes and context of the abuse crisis, also discussed the delayed and often lacking responses to victims by the Church and offered recommendations on improvements. Over the last twenty years, multiple researchers, government entities and commissions have evaluated the problem of abuse in the Church in the US and globally. This paper provides an analysis of the findings from major reports published in the last 20 years and compares those findings to the Nature and Scope report. Findings show that the major trends identified in the Nature and Scope report are consistent with those in reports released in the United States and in other countries.« (Source: Online Program)

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