ABSTRACT

The Catholic Church in the U.S. has been under concerted public pressure to improve its child protection policies. However, development of these policies has largely been left to the discretion of local dioceses with little central oversight. To determine the scope of current abuse prevention policies, we analyzed all 32 U.S. archdioceses’ policies and practices for developing a safe environment and preventing child sexual abuse. Using a tool developed from a list of unique components selected from the policies of all 32 archdioceses, we compared policies and procedures across archdioceses. On a group level, we found policies to be inadequate. The average score for archdioceses in the general area of prevention was 40.7 (SD = 9.3) out of 102 possible points (40% of possible points) with few prevention policies conforming to basic best practices that would be expected of a youth-serving organization. The variation and inconsistencies across archdioceses reveal the need for the Catholic Church to establish more uniform standards for preventing sexual abuse. These standards should be grounded in evidence-based practices and expert guidance. We also discuss some key areas which warrant immediate attention in future policy-making.

摘要

美国天主教会一直承受着共同的公众压力，要求改进其儿童保护政策。然而，这些政策的制定主要由地方教区自行决定，几乎没有中央监督。为了确定当前虐待预防政策的范围，我们分析了所有 32 个美国总教区的政策和实践，以建立安全环境和防止儿童性虐待。我们使用从所有 32 个总教区政策中选出的独特组件列表开发的工具，比较了各个总教区的政策和程序。在集团层面，我们发现政策不够完善。总教区在一般预防领域的平均得分为 40.7 (SD = 9. 3) 在 102 个可能的点（可能点的 40%）中，几乎没有符合青年服务组织所期望的基本最佳实践的预防政策。大教区之间的差异和不一致表明天主教会需要制定更统一的标准来防止性虐待。这些标准应以循证实践和专家指导为基础。我们还讨论了一些值得在未来决策中立即关注的关键领域。