IICSA Inquiry investigation is thematic and will review the current child protection policies, practices and procedures in religious institutions that have a significant presence in England and Wales.
Religions with a significant presence in England and Wales including non conformist Christian denominations, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism will fall under the remit of this investigation.
There have been some concerns that this Inquiry is another way for the government to poke it's nose into the private matters of religious organisations in the UK and a way to begin the regulation of religious belief all done under the guise of protecting children.
The MT as a private trust that has fought for the right to believe in anything you like as long as you do not harm anyone, we wanted to get involved especially as we have been approached by a number of Jehovah's Witnesses who claimed that this important Inquiry was being used by activists to criticize or discredit them. As mentioned here we have started to get involved and monitor and you can catch up with other posts through links here -
The Michael Trust will monitor and get involved with IICSA, Independent Inquiry
In response this link is to our own investigatory report we will be starting in March 2020 -
Do the religious and faith communities have faith, confidence to engage the police and regulatory bodies?
What will the IICSA learn during this part of the investigation
This post examines what potentially the IICSA can learn about institutional responses to child sexual abuse in religious institutions. It discusses the nature and extent of child sexual abuse in religious institutions, the impacts of this abuse, and survivors’ experiences of disclosing it. This post examines what potentially can be learned about the nature and adequacy of institutional responses to child sexual abuse in religious institutions, and what can be drawn out in relation to common factors contributing to the abuse and common failings in institutional responses. What possibly the IICSA recommends to prevent child sexual abuse from occurring in religious institutions and, where it does occur, to help ensure effective responses.
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| Visit the Truth Project |
The report from the Truth Project includes data on religions with a significant presence in England and Wales, including the Anglican and Catholic Churches, Christian faith communities such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists and Methodists, and Islam and Judaism.
The report’s key findings include:
- Those sexually abused in religious institutions were less likely to report the abuse at the time (69 per cent) than survivors (54 per cent) in the same institution.
- Over half of survivors did not report the abuse due to feelings of shame (37 per cent) and guilt (18 per cent).
- Half of victims (48 per cent) knew of others being abused by the same perpetrator.
- One fifth (18 percent) of survivors reported a loss of faith as a consequence of the abuse.
The report also examines institutional failures, with most participants firmly believing others were aware of the perpetrator’s behaviour but did nothing. Sexual abuse was most frequently perpetrated by an individual with an official religious title, such as priest, vicar, imam or elder.
At the Truth Project, survivors are invited to make recommendations for change. Participants told the Inquiry that it needs to address the secrecy that comes from the sanctity of religious institutions and the assumption that religious figures are automatically moral.
"Shame and guilt stop survivors reporting child sexual abuse in religious institutions."
What potentially the IICSA learn during the hearings aspects of institutional child sexual abuse which were specific to religious institutions.
I am going to try to explain what I learned in relation to CSA when the MT provided its helpline for those who were either survivors of religious or faith based groups, cults, also those who had lost contact with family members after the individuals had joined a faith group or cult.
What potentially the IICSA learn during the hearings aspects of institutional child sexual abuse which were specific to religious institutions.
- Survivors will tell about characteristics of their religious communities that may have contributed to the risk of abuse, acted as a barrier to disclosure, or affected institutional responses.
- Some will say about some religious communities that could be described as ‘closed’, where children had limited interaction with the broader community.
- They will hear from survivors about growing up in religious communities with little or no education about sex, and about how this left them vulnerable to sexual abuse.
- They will hear about devout religious families, parents who often had such high regard for people in religious ministry that they naturally trusted them to supervise their children. This especially the MT found in relation to Jehovah's Witnesses.
- That people in religious ministry were considered to be representatives of God. Many parents were unable to believe they could be capable of sexually abusing a child. In this environment, perpetrators who were people in religious ministry often had unfettered access to children.
- They will learn that children were often sexually abused by people in religious ministry after the perpetrator had groomed the child’s family members by becoming closely involved in their family life.
- The Inquiry will hear about perpetrators who ingratiated themselves into the family and became regular visitors to the home. Sometimes perpetrators stepped into the role of ‘father figure’ or exploited particularly vulnerable families such as those experiencing marriage breakdown or mourning a death.
- Survivors will also say that as children they were threatened or blamed for the sexual abuse they experienced, often in ways that manipulated their religious beliefs – such as the threat of being sent to hell if they resisted sexual abuse or disclosed it. The MT found that many who spoke about abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses often spoke about the Elder's wrongly using the warning "Not to bring reproach upon Jehovah's Organisation."
- They will hear survivors tell of the use of threats and blame in the name of God had a powerful effect on them as children.
- They will hear about priests misusing the practice of religious confession to facilitate child sexual abuse or to silence victims.
- Survivors will tell about experiencing sexual abuse as children in the confessional at their church.
- Some survivors will describe such experiences as amounting to a type of ‘spiritual abuse’, which profoundly damaged their religious beliefs and trust in their religious organisation.
Abuse of trust was the main component to enable the perpetrator to operate in plain sight and get away with what they did. The fact that members of these religious groups would blindly trust not just the Elders or Pastor's but literally anyone including teenager who would take their own children off on trips or other recreational gatherings. For the Jehovah's Witnesses they would trust teenage members or publishers to go off on ministry work or calling door to door with no supervision. Their old view was that they were in pairs of two, so they must fine.
Some of the stories I heard from victims were horrific in the way girls as young as fourteen were manipulated into sex by those in their congregation or churches. Often the victims would be blamed by the perpetrator for it being their fault that abuse started.
It was the culture of the religious organisations and faith groups to trust blindly others within their organisations. It was this environment that made it easier for perpetrators of abuse to get away with so much. It also according to some victims that spoke to me who said that the strict religious teachings on dating and the limiting of contact with people in the outside would made it easier for perpetrators to operate in secret as the victims felt that they them selves would be in trouble for reporting to Elder's or Pastor's within their own churches or congregations.
For me when I met people who had suffered within churches or congregations, it did not really matter what policies they had in writing it was how they applied their own rules or procedures and the behaviors of those who ran the churches and congregations that matter. I am sure that the CSA Inquiry will have already found the same common ground as the MT did. The main point we learned was that most religious institutions see Sin as a wound that needs to be healed and on this basis if the perpetrator showed in their eyes true remorse the leaders of the churches, groups or congregations would often let the perpetrator remain and attend services or meetings.
What the IICSA Inquiry will possibly conclude on common similarities on how the religious and faith based groups responded to allegations when the learned of them -
- The IICSA Inquiry case studies will demonstrate that it was a common practice of religious institutions to adopt ‘in-house’ responses when dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse. Sometimes there was no response at all. Often, alleged perpetrators were treated with considerable leniency. ‘Inhouse’ responses ensured that allegations remained secret, and shielded religious institutions from public scrutiny or accountability.
- That the leaders of religious institutions often showed insufficient consideration for victims at the time they disclosed child sexual abuse.
- They frequently responded with disbelief or denial, or attempted to blame or discredit the victim.
- The Inquiry will learn of instances where children who disclosed sexual abuse in religious institutions were punished or suffered further abuse.
- Leaders of religious institutions often minimised the sexual conduct that was reported to them and wrongly concluded that there was no criminality in the alleged actions.
- In other cases religious leaders knew that actions were or may have been criminal. However, leaders of religious institutions typically did not report allegations to police.
- Leaders of religious institutions were often reluctant to remove alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse from positions in ministry or employment after suspicions of child sexual abuse were raised or allegations were received.
- In some cases perpetrators made admissions of behaviour amounting to child sexual abuse, yet religious leaders were still reluctant to take decisive action or report them to police.
- Victims who reported child sexual abuse were at times assured by leaders of religious institutions that action would be taken against alleged perpetrators, when often none was.
- That the number of complaints received by some religious institutions, often including multiple complaints about the same individual, suggested a pattern of inaction in responding to alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
- Some alleged perpetrators remained in the same positions with access to children for years, some for decades, after initial and successive allegations of abuse were raised.
- Some leaders of religious institutions made serious errors of judgment in the face of compelling evidence of child sexual abuse, by giving alleged perpetrators a ‘second chance’ with continued or successive appointments.
- This included moving alleged perpetrators to new positions in different locations where they were offered a ‘fresh start’, untarnished by their history of sexual offending or previous allegations.
- In some instances, these new appointments were geographically removed from the locations where the original complaints arose, and involved movements across Australia or between different religious institutions. The communities that perpetrators were moved into were in some cases not made aware of the risks these individuals posed.
- Leaders of religious institutions also commonly allowed alleged perpetrators to continue in ministry or employment with little or no risk management or monitoring of their interactions with children. In many cases, supervisory arrangements were either not put in place or were not effective. Some perpetrators who continued in ministry or employment continued to sexually abuse children.
- The IICSA Inquiry may conclude that across religious institutions, the inadequacy of internal disciplinary systems and the limited use of disciplinary measures meant that some perpetrators of child sexual abuse were not disciplined at all; some were disciplined, but in a minimal way; and others were disciplined, but only many years after allegations were raised or they were convicted. This often meant that perpetrators who were in religious ministry retained their religious titles, and lay perpetrators remained attached to religious institutions in circumstances where it was plainly inappropriate for them to do so.
- Instead of reporting allegations to police or engaging with formal disciplinary processes for the dismissal of perpetrators of child sexual abuse from religious ministry, people who responded to allegations of child sexual abuse in religious institutions sometimes encouraged perpetrators to retire or resign as a way of dealing with these matters ‘quietly’.
- Some leaders of religious institutions also took steps to conceal the real reasons for which people were removed from positions in ministry or employment following allegations or admissions of child sexual abuse. This included, for example, allowing perpetrators to retire or resign on false grounds, such as for health reasons.
Commencing in the late 1980s - 1990s, some religious organisations developed protocols for responding to complaints of child sexual abuse, as well as redress processes. In the 2006 - 2012 the MT used to offer free safeguarding templates for religious groups and faith based organisations, but few ever took us up on the offer. In a report that was done by our Co-founder privately for select members of the House of Lords he learned from the leaders of the Muslim faith that they possibly would welcome assistance with bringing in safeguarding for their children's religious education classes and we are happy to say that after passing this on to Prevent that this has now started over the past year or so, where a free audit of safeguarding is made to enable improvements.
It would be great if some survivors, engaging with redress processes developed by religious institutions was a positive experience that contributed to their healing. Some survivors were complimentary about particular aspects of these processes, including offers of pastoral support, and spoke of receiving genuine apologies that had a significant healing effect.
The IICSA Inquiry will find that however, many survivors told them that their experiences were difficult, frightening or confusing. Religious institutions frequently failed to provide appropriate care and support for survivors during redress processes, civil litigation or criminal proceedings. This sometimes exacerbated the trauma experienced by survivors.
Processes for receiving and responding to complaints and claims for redress were often overly legalistic, lacked transparency, involved generic apologies or no apologies at all, and failed to appropriately recognize the long-term and devastating impacts of child sexual abuse on victims, survivors and their families.
The IICSA Inquiry will find that however, many survivors told them that their experiences were difficult, frightening or confusing. Religious institutions frequently failed to provide appropriate care and support for survivors during redress processes, civil litigation or criminal proceedings. This sometimes exacerbated the trauma experienced by survivors.
Processes for receiving and responding to complaints and claims for redress were often overly legalistic, lacked transparency, involved generic apologies or no apologies at all, and failed to appropriately recognize the long-term and devastating impacts of child sexual abuse on victims, survivors and their families.
I feel that all of the above learned already from the Australian Inquiry will be similar to what the UK IICSA Inquiry will conclude.
I think there should be mandatory reporting for all when it comes to suspected abuse and I hope to write more on this soon.
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