The Church’s response to child sexual abuse has often been to protect the abuser at the expense of the abused. Especially where the abuser was appointed to a position of trust and then abused that trust. The Church has paid millions of dollars to cover up the problem. Safeguards have only ever been reluctantly put in place - it took activists in the UK to force the Church’s hand into increasing safeguarding measures. Which the Church did begrudgingly and only the bare minimum, and only in the UK where the activism took place.To the extent any community has allowed isolated access to children historically, this has sadly proven to raise the risk of victimization. That includes abuse connected with “unguarded access to children” by religious leaders, “unsupervised coaches,” rogue law enforcement, predator physicians, leaders of boys and girls’ clubs and other places where perpetrators can seek out “volunteer work with organizations through which they can meet children.”
One study of 41 serial perpetrators found that 57% reported having picked their profession either partly or specifically in order to access children. Such privileged, close contact with youth is often taken for granted within special trusted roles — clergy, coach, teacher, mentor, counselor, camp staff and scout leader.
DCP is right to warn members that their Church does not have their back when it comes to protecting their kids. Members need to take it upon themselves to ensure nobody, NOBODY, gets unguarded access to their kids.
