Gendered Violence in Religious Groups: Examining the Data

In this presentation, I will report on two projects I am currently involved with that address concerns about ongoing and historical gendered violence in religious organisations.

The first project is a collaboration with researchers in theology and sociology at the University of Regensburg, Germany, where we are developing two innovative methodologies to investigate and build evidence of the historical and current sexual and spiritual abuse of Catholic Women Religious (also known as nuns). Initial findings indicate low disclosure/high prevalence rates in the affected cohort, so finding ways to gather data is a challenge.

The second project is a collaboration with UK colleague Dr Sarah-Jane Page working on a comparative analysis of a small religious group - Jehovah's Witnesses - in two public inquiries into institutional child sexual abuse in the UK and Australia. Both inquiries examined evidence from survivors and church leaders of the poor management of disclosures and treatment…