Sexual Misconduct: Problem and Solutions Research Paper

Outline

1. Introduction
   1. The meaning of sexual misconduct
   2. Sexual misconduct as a problem facing many societies
2. The scope of the problem
   1. History of sexual misconduct
   2. The magnitude of this vice in the world
3. Problem conceptualization and research trends
   1. How different groups of people deal with various forms of sexual misconduct
   2. The impact of sexual misconduct to the society
4. Solutions to the problem
   1. The approaches used to deal with the problem
   2. The effectiveness of the approaches
5. Conclusion
   1. The aspects that lead to sexual misconduct in the church
   2. The adequacy of the measures taken to curb the vice

Introduction

Sexual misconduct refers to all forms of mannerisms that do not conform to the moral standards of a given society concerning sexuality. This covers both heterosexuals and homosexuals. In the church, it translates to betrayal of sacred trust of the person who gets involved in these activities.

This could be the religious leaders or even lay men and women. Owing to the different types of relationships in any social setting, sexual misconduct is subject to the parties that are involved. This paper brings out the different forms of sexual misconduct in a church setting, the aspects that contribute to this vice, as well as the measures that people have applied to stop it.

It is also going to highlight the impact of sexual misconduct to the entire society. It is important to mention that this study will stretch to over four decades when this vice gained public attention. However, the study material will exclusively constitute of journals published within the last five years. This paper brings out a broader view of sexual misconduct in the church over the past years.

The scope of the problem

Cases of sexual misconduct began gaining public attention in the 1970s. The first cases that existed involved members of the Catholic clergy (Ghosh, 2010, p.2). There were fifty alleged cases of sexual abuse in Jesuit High School in Germany.

It did not take a long time before this number grew to three hundred allegations of sexual misconduct. Statistics have shown that two thirds of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany are currently dealing with cases of sexual misconduct (Dowling, 2010, p.8).

It is therefore evident that there has been an increasing trend of sexual misconduct in the church. In addition, Ireland is another country that has recorded high cases of sexual misconduct in the world (Lytton, 2008, p. 328). This mainly occurs in religion-based schools and churches.

It is important to mention that this has led to the resignation of four out of the twenty-four Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland. One such incident involves a catholic premium who once asked two young victims to take an oath of silence to prevent them from uncovering his evil deeds (McCathy, 2007, p. 588).

Before his eventual arrest, he had sexually molested the minors for almost two decades without the knowledge of the public. The other countries that have experienced high cases of sexual abuse include the US, Canada and Belgium.

There are several forms of sexual misconduct. These include sexual abuse, sexual harassment and elicit sexual behavior. According to Poling (2006), sexual harassment refers to unwanted gender directed sexual behavior based on any relationship that is so severe creating a hostile and offensive environment (p.59).

It can take the form of unwelcome sexual jokes, advances, or insulting comments directed towards sexually exploiting others. Wind and Swillan (2008), observe that, sexual abuse occurs when a member of the clergy takes advantage of the loyalty of his/her congregant and engages in sexual contact with him/her (p.26).

This is usually a coerced or rather forced sexual activity. Sexual abuse can also take the form of exhibition or display of sexual visuals to children or even the youth in a certain church (Stephens, 2011, p. 120). These sexual visuals/pornographic material corrupt the minds of the victims rendering them vulnerable to unwanted sexual activities.

According to Montgomery (2009), sexualized behavior refers to all mannerisms intended to communicate sexual interest or content (p.133). This includes making sexual comments about one’s body, caressing as well as kissing. Sexualized behavior becomes a form of sexual misconduct when practiced without the consent of the other party or when performed to minors.

In a church setting, this culminates into misuse of pastoral/ministerial power to take advantage of the vulnerability of the congregant (McGrath, 2010, p.39). It is important to mention that the major cause of sexual misconduct in the church is the failure of religious leaders to maintain appropriate emotional and sexual boundaries between them and the people they lead.

Roka (2010) argues that it is entirely their responsibility to safeguard and protect the well-being of all their congregants (p.17). On the contrary, many religious leaders have neglected this responsibility. This has rendered the congregants to watch over the day-to-day activities of their leaders.

It is important to mention that sexual misconduct not only involves sexual abuse of clergy to their congregants but also the sexual abuse of clergy by their congregants (Noonan, 2010, p.46). Sexual misconduct may also include sexual abuse within the congregants in the church.

However, the cases that have won much public attention are those whereby the sexual offenders are senior people in the church more specifically the clergy.

It was not until 2008 that the church began intensified investigation of sexual misconduct within the Roman Catholic clergy. This began in the US that has the highest number of sexual misconduct cases worldwide Kane, 2006, p.102). A study carried out by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice showed that 4,392 priests were allegedly involved in 11,000 sexual misconduct conducts (Stephens, 2011, p.122).

The victims were 10,667 minors. This implied that the church needed to take serious actions against such religious leaders. It also called for the involvement of the civil law that required the use of church funds in settling the problem.

By 2009, the Roman Catholic Church in the US had used over US$ 2.6 billion in sexual misconduct cases. Eventually six US dioceses sought bankruptcy due to the magnitude of the cases they were handling (Kaveny, 2010, p.15).

From this example, it is evident that, sexual misconduct is not only an issue that affects someone emotionally but also one that can be a financial burden to the church. In addition, the church at that time lost some of its clergy (Fastenberg, 2010, p.1).

Some of those who had been involved in such a vice resigned. One archbishop resigned because of the acts of priests. Archbishop Benard Francis resigned following some prove that some priests working under him had been involved in sexually abusing their congregants.

Statistics show that sexual offenders account for over 10% of the prison population in the US (Martinez, & Lucian, 2008, p.148).This means that the church and the society have recognized that civil law is instrumental in dealing with those convicted with sexual misconduct.

Problem conceptualization and research trends

In order to monitor the trend of sexual misconduct cases, researchers opted to major on the trends of the frequently occurring forms of sexual misconduct- the sexual abuse among minors. According to Parkingson (2010), not all victims of sexual abuse report the incidences to the authorities (p.29).

The Canadian Police conducted such a study in 2004 based on the reporting of such incidences to the authorities. The research showed that 512,000 young Canadians, not more than fifteen years old, had undergone some form of sexual abuse (Ronan, 2008, p.334).

They also found out that 78% of sexual abuse cases were not reported making it difficult to monitor the frequency of such offenses. Those who did not report the cases to the police had different reasons. Fifty-eight percent argued that they did not see it important enough while the rest felt either it was a personal matter or did not want anything to do with the police.

A similar study conducted in Illinois and Pennsylvania in the US based on the trends of reduction of sexual abuse results in the society between 19991-1998 produced similar results. These included the incidences of teen pregnancy, children running away from their home places and cases of suicide among teens (Lorezenten, 2008, p.170).

Teen pregnancy is a result of sexual abuse as well as the exposure of teens to sexual visuals/pornographic materials. According to this study, there has been a 28% decline as far as teen pregnancy is concerned. Cases of suicide among teens exhibited a similar trend.

Police also reported that there was a decline in the number of children running away from their home places due to sexual abuse. This study also used the rate of divorces as a social indicator of sexual misconduct/unfaithfulness in the society.

Over the period, divorce rates recorded a 15% decline (Marcotte, 2008, p.26). In this study, the social indicators of sexual misconduct exhibited a decline.

Several aspects led to the decline of the incidences of sexual abuse in the church. One of these reasons is the increment of publicity of sexual abuse in the society (Willis, 2010, p.15). In addition, there has been an intensified effort in the detection of cases of sexual misconduct among church members and the society.

Burkett (2010) argues that upgraded law enforcement is a practice that has greatly helped in substantial reduction of sexual misconduct (p.16). Most societies have incorporated stiffened legal punishment or rather sanctions to people who plead guilty to sexual related offenses.

We must address the causes of sexual misconduct in the society to curb the vice. Rade and Rober (2006) argue that one of them is lack of proper training of religious leaders in the church (p.58). Improper training does not give them the proper knowledge on how to conduct themselves adequately in the church.

According to Boyd (2007), with the increased flow of information especially in most social networking sites has also been a contributing factor to sexual misconduct in the church (p.28). Such sites contain pornographic materials that pollute the minds of minors since there are no restrictions based on age.

It is also important to mention that, lack of internet information control by the concerned bodies has led to the failure of removing such sites in the social networks. Some churches face a problem of lack of enough ministers (Sipe, 2008, p.13). They end up employing people who lack the qualifications to fit in such places.

In the extreme cases, the superiors cover up the sexual misconduct of such ministers. Consequently, sexual abuse in the church proliferates. Lack of well-established policies to deal with sexual misconduct in the church has also contributed to the propagation of the vice in our churches (Arthur, 2011, p.228).

For instance, Israel notes that, in 2008 Pope Benedict XVI went to Washington DC where he met some victims of Sexual abuse by American priests (2010, p.57). This was a private meeting-those involved did not give any report.

The Pope’s reluctance to address the vice publicly in the church surprises besides hurting many people (Chaves, & Garland, 2009, p.65). However, the people cannot do anything about it.

This is because there are no set guidelines of dealing with cases of sexual misconduct in the society. This leaves the culprits unpunished and the victims unattended. This also yields inconsistency in dealing with sexual misconduct in the church and the society.

Sexual misconduct in the church has had substantial impact on the society. As earlier mention, it leads to an increase of teen pregnancies. Teen pregnancies on the other hand open the door for other vices in the community (Adam, & D’souza, 2009, p.37). One of such vices in the society is abortion.

It is immoral and unethical. The teen pregnancies also result into teen mothers. This poses an increase of teenage mothers in the society. Sexual misconduct increases the chances of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.

This reduces the economical productivity of the victims in the society (Odell, 2010, p.12). Consequently, poverty takes root in such communities. Sexual abuse and harassment at times make communities to lose important members when the victims decide to commit suicide.

The intense emotional pain that one may go through when sexually abused causes this tragedy. It is therefore important to provide proper guidance and counseling to the victims of sexual abuse to prevent such from happening.

The society has also lost trust in most religious leaders following the several cases of sexual misconduct of the associated with the clergy. This comes with the failure of the society to adhere to other crucial religious guidelines.

However, sexual misconduct cases have led to the invention of civil laws to govern sexuality in the society inclusive of religious leaders. Most governments have also deployed forces to deal with both the offenders and victims.

There are also set rehabilitation centers where e both the victims and offenders of sexual abuse undergo guidance and counseling to achieve both emotional and physical healing (Orange, & Martin, 2006, p.92).

The rehabilitation centers present employment opportunities to other members of the society who work to ensure that the victims go through the rehabilitation process successfully. To the church, sexual abuse leads to the loss of religious leaders.

This occurs when the ones that are involved in any form of sexual misconduct resign or undergo court trials that lead to their imprisonment.

Solutions to the problem

Societies have employed different approaches in dealing with sexual misconduct in the church. There are those that affect the perpetrators of sexual abuse, the victims of sexual abuse, as well as the entire society (Grisez, 2006, p.30).

Before assuming their job, religious leaders undergo training that equips them with the necessary information as far as handling congregants is concerned. This encourages them to take their responsibility of safeguarding and promoting the well-being of all the people entrusted to them.

The training also makes them aware of the sanction measures they will undergo in cases they commit any form of sexual misconduct in the church. The punishment is not only a means to make offenders suffer but also a special convention to signify moral condemnation.

According to Trihub (2010), in some cases, the court may give convicted persons a chance to choose between serving a prison term and undergoing therapeutic treatment in rehabilitation centers (p.61).

The training centers provide resources for various bodies that address prevention, intervention, education, as well as healing of clergy or laity involvement in any form of sexual misconduct.

Just as Burke (2010) asserts, any religious leader who is responsible for sexual misconduct of his/her congregant portrays a bad image of religious values (p.28). As a result, the church should not remain silent over such offences to prevent a repetition of the same.

The society should not leave victims of sexual violence alone. With the help of responsible religious leaders, the victims go through a healing process in rehabilitation centers.

The techniques used in the treatment process include conditional techniques, group therapy and chemical interventions (McLaughlin, 2010, p.28). Others include traditional talking psychotherapy and group therapy.

The training or rather treatment includes initial training, follow-up and advanced training to ensure that they come into terms with their fate and resume normalcy.

According to Bosse 2010, the church should show a lot of concern to the victims of sexual misconduct (p.37).The rehabilitation centers also come up with models for use in future cases in intervention and healing. This would be an attempt to provide consistency and thorough response to initiated complaints.

Rehabilitation centers are not only set for the victims of sexual abuse but also the perpetrators of the abuse. The goal of taking those convicted with sexual abuse to rehabilitation centers is to prevent reoccurrence of such incidences in the future.

It is important to mention that the rehabilitation centers also take people with morally defective behavioral patterns for psychotherapy as most societies consider such people capable of being involved in sexually immoral behavior.

The therapist in the rehabilitation centers measure the effectiveness of the psychotherapeutic treatment by observing its contribution to the normal functioning and emotional health of an individual.

Reference of the individuals’ behavior to the applicable social norms or some set statistical behavior helps the specialists to determine the degree of normalcy achieved by an individual. However, there is little evidence that the treatment received in rehabilitation centers can reduce recidivism.

A group of researchers in US studied the effectiveness of this treatment to 106 sexual abuse perpetrators 3-23 years after undergoing treatment in a rehabilitation center. (Sipe, 2008, p.16).

They found out that 44.3% of them repeated the crime. This demonstrated the importance of follow-ups as well as advanced treatment where necessary.

Summary and Conclusion

Sexual misconduct is a vice that has existed in the church for many decades. However, these cases gained public attention in less than four decades ago following the involvement of catholic clergy involvement in some forms of sexual misconduct.

The first cases involved a priest who sexually abused two young boys who were part of his congregation (Allen, 2007, p.128). This led to the unveiling of hundreds and even thousands of other cases of sexual abuse allegations in the church.

According to Gollar (2011), the countries that exhibited high cases of sexual misconduct in the church included US, Canada, German, and Ireland (p.50). Upon bringing cases of sexual misconduct in the church to public knowledge, the society demanded the church to act accordingly e.g. by punishing those convicted with sexual abuse.

However, the church was reluctant to solve the issue due to fear of losing religious leaders. The church dealt with such issues as private matters i.e. within the confines of the leadership of the church (Bosse, 2010, p. 47). It did not take long before the society brought in civil law to deal with such cases.

This was due to the increasing trend in sexual abuse cases not only in the church but also in the society. The victims of sexual abuse could report to the police. This led to the punishment of all sexual offenders. As a result, there has been a substantial reduction in cases of sexual misconduct around the globe since 1990.

Cases of sexual misconduct have reduced by approximately 28% in the recent past. Sexual misconduct has had tremendous negative impact to both the church and the society. To deal with the problem, states established rehabilitation centers some of which are still functional.

In these centers, both the sexual victims and offenders undergo psychotherapeutic treatment. The purpose of the treatment for the victims is to enhance their healing. For the sexual offenders, the aim of the treatment is to prevent the individual from committing a similar offense in the future.

It is important to mention that there is need to carry out further research in order to establish the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic treatment in preventing future incidences of sexual misconduct.

The church needs to establish an international policy of handling cases of sexual misconduct within its religious confines. Researchers also need to tackle cases of sexual abuse within the congregants with the same intensity that they apply in cases that involve religious leaders.

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