Sex Abuse in the Protestant Church: An Analysis of Child Sexual Predators within the Church

• In Event: New Directions in Research on Sexual Victimization

Abstract

Prior research on sexual abuse in religious settings tends to focus on the Catholic Church, creating a gap in research on sexual abuse within the Protestant Church. In May 2022, a detailed report on over 700 cases of sexual abuse from within Protestant churches associated with the Southern Baptist Convention was published. A subsample of 375 randomly selected cases were coded for offender characteristics (e.g., gender, age), offenders’ church involvement (e.g., job title, church knowledge of offense), crime characteristics (e.g., abuse type, abuse location), and victim characteristics (e.g., gender, age). Descriptive analyses were used to examine prevalence of sexual abuse in the Protestant Church, as well as inform on various offender, victim, and crime characteristics. Implications for policy, practice, and future research will be discussed.

Authors

• Emily Milner, University of Nebraska Omaha

• Dakota M. Schroll, University of Nebraska Omaha

• Kaitlyn Swanberg, University of Nebraska Omaha

• Tara Richards, The University of Nebraska at Omaha