Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany: comparison of victim-impact data collected through church-sponsored and government-sponsored programs

Abstract

At around the same time in 2010, the German government and the Roman Catholic Church in Germany each set up a critical incident reporting system (CIRS) to gather information on child sexual abuse that had taken place within the Church. The objective in both cases was to solicit stories from victims and former victims and allow them to have input into a review process. The existence of these two similar systems, one initiated by the institution involved in the abuse and the other by an independent entity, provided an opportunity to compare the background and motivation of victims who chose to communicate through one channel or the other. Data were obtained on a total of 927 individuals, 571 through the church CIRS and 356 through the government CIRS, who had reported that they had experienced childhood sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. Some differences were found between the two groups in terms of gender, the reported frequency of abuse, and the desire for compensation. These differences highlight the need for an effective complaint management system to offer not just one but complementary channels of communication. In addition, the findings confirm the feasibility and value of a CIRS approach and the use of so-called 'citizen science' in politically driven review processes.

Keywords: Child sexual abuse; Complaint management; Critical incident reporting system; Empowerment of victims; Roman Catholic Church.