Child Protection in the Church: An Anglican Case Study

by Michael A. Guerzoni

Overview

Child Protection in the Church investigates whether, amidst publicised promises of change from church institutions and the introduction of “safe church” policies and procedures, reform is actually occurring within Christian churches towards safeguarding, using a case study of the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania, Australia.

Through the use of interviews and document analysis, the book provides an insight into the attitudes and practices of “ordinary clergypersons” towards child sexual abuse and safeguarding to understand how safe ministry is understood and executed in everyday life in the Church, and to what extent it aligns with policy requirements and criminological best practice. It adopts organisational culture theory, the perspective used to explain how clerical culture enabled and concealed child sexual abuse in the Church to the present, in order to understand how clerical attitudes (cognition) and practice (conduct) today is being shaped by some of the same negative cultures. Underlying these cultures is misunderstandings of abuse causation, which are shown here to negatively shape clerical practice and, at times, compromise policy and procedural requirements.

Providing an insight into the lived reality of safeguarding within churches, and highlighting the ongoing complexities of safe ministry, the book is a useful companion to students, academics, and practitioners of child protection and organisational studies, alongside clergy, church leaders, and those training for the ministry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367607838
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/09/2023
Series:	Routledge Studies in Crime and Society
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael A. Guerzoni (PhD, University of Tasmania) is an Indigenous Fellow Academic Development (Criminology) in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania, Australia. His research examines clerical culture and abuse prevention within Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism, and the wellbeing of Indigenous children. He lectures in child protection and juvenile justice.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Clergy-Child Sexual Abuse and the Church Abuse Crisis: Context and Concerns

3. Theorising Behaviour and Crime Prevention Within Religious Organisations

4. The Anglican Diocese of Tasmania: Structure, Context and the Clergy

5. Anglican Diocese of Tasmania: Child Abuse Training, Policies and Procedures

6. Cognition: Clerical Attitudes Toward Child Sexual Abuse and Child Safety

7. Conduct: Clerical Situational Crime Prevention Techniques and Everyday Ministerial
8. Practices in Response to Clergy-Child Sexual Abuse in the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania

9. Culture: Understanding Cognition and Conduct: Analysing Clerical Habitus and Clerical Culture

10. Conclusion

11. Appendices

12. References