Why Is Child Sexual Abuse Covered-Up by Institutions, and How Do They Try to Evade Accountability to Survivors?
How and why does the Catholic church cover-up sexual abuse? How high up do these practices go? Is this only a problem in the Catholic Church? What do cover-ups mean for survivors coming forward?
These and many other questions are addressed here by our attorneys and advocates who have decades of experience exposing institutional cover-ups of child sexual abuse and providing healing and justice for victims. Survivors everywhere who have come forward to hold perpetrators and corrupt institutions accountable have helped make tremendous progress in creating a safer world for children of the future.
Perpetrators of sexual crimes can be masterful manipulators and sources of significant influence and income within their organizations. All too often, organizations cover up perpetrators’ crimes to preserve the organization’s reputation, maintain power and increase profit over the protection of children. These practices lead to a culture of secrecy, which emboldens predators and silences survivors. Organizations must lead with clear policies and actions that demonstrate the safety of children is a top priority, which requires confronting their history to ensure that the past failures do not continue.
Does Sexual Abuse Cover-Up Only Happen in the Catholic Church?
No. The institutional cover-up of child sexual abuse is pervasive and common.
Unfortunately, many institutions, including familial institutions, cover up child sexual abuse.
For example, the Greek Orthodox Church, Baptist Church, Boy Scouts of America, Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), Episcopal Church (Anglican Church), Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jewish communities, New Tribes Mission, public and private schools have been accused of covering up the sexual abuse of minors.
Some reasons why institutions cover-up sexual abuse include:
- Denial of the shocking reality that such a thing could happen within the institution.
- Institutional self-protection from shame, embarrassment, scandal, prosecution, and lawsuits.
- The “normalization” of abuse
- Knowledge of corrupt institutional practices of shielding sexual abuse perpetrators from consequences
Although child sexual abuse and cover-up are pervasive, coming forward and reporting abuse is one of the most powerful things that survivors can do to stop the cycle.
The reason that we hear so much about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is because of the systematic and well-documented strategies deployed by the church hierarchy. We have learned about these strategies only because brave survivors have come forward (in the civil courts and elsewhere) and demanded accountability.
We have decades of experience, exposing clergy child sexual abuse crimes in many other institutions. Contact us for a free confidential conversation about how we can hold perpetrators and institutions accountable, and create a safer world for children now and in the future.
The Person Who Covered Up My Abuse Was a Close Friend of My Family. Why Would They Do This?
It’s devastating for many survivors to learn that someone they trusted protected the predator, covered up the abuse, and put the survivor and others at risk.
For many survivors, that betrayal is as painful as the abuse itself.
We don’t know in many cases exactly why adults protect predators, but we know this: there is never a good reason to cover up child sexual abuse.
Wrongdoers may think that they are protecting the church, guarding a priest’s reputation, or covering up what they believe is a one-time occurrence.
But what they are doing is aiding and abetting criminals and putting more innocent children at direct risk of abuse.
The more we empower survivors to report abuse through victim-friendly legislation and survivor support, the more we can work together to hold these wrongdoers accountable and stop the cycle.
We have decades of experience helping survivors navigate the challenges of situations such as these which can include painful feelings of betrayal, and sometimes risks to personal safety.
Contact us for a free confidential conversation about how we can hold perpetrators and institutions accountable, and create a safer world for children now and in the future.
How Do I Find Out More Information About Cover-Up in My Diocese/Parish/State?
We publish information about many clergy sexual abuse crimes. A collection of our reports can be found here. And you can find state-level information here.
There are many publicly available sources online where you can learn more about clergy sexual abuse and cover-up in your area. Nonprofits like BishopAccountability.org have made it their mission to expose the clergy sexual abuse crisis on an international scale. On their site, you can find documents regarding the cover-up of child sexual abuse in almost every diocese in the United States.
Many news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, and ProPublica have put together databases of publicly released documents from internal archdiocese/diocese files and survivors’ lawsuits.
These extensive libraries outline the scope and scale of institutional cover-up.
Church Officials Told Me That They Had No Idea About My Abuse. Should I Believe them?
Thousands of survivors nationwide have used the civil justice system because church officials have lied to them, saying that there was no evidence of their abuse or that they were “the only victim.”
We encourage you to exercise all of your legal options.
We have decades of experience exposing exactly these types of lies.
Do You Help People Who Were Abused in Other Denominations, Religions, and Faiths? Only Catholic Cases?
Many of our cases involve the Catholic church and various Catholic entities. We also represent survivors against other secular and non-secular institutions. In order to determine if we can help you, please contact us confidentially for an individual case consultation.
Why Aren’t More People Held Accountable for Covering Up Abuse?
Unfortunately, criminal laws regarding failure to report abuse are not very robust. It can be difficult to hold individuals criminally accountable.
Through the civil system, however, we can expose abuse and the people who have covered it up.
By holding institutions and their officials accountable to survivors and the civil courts, we can help create a deterrent for future abuse.
Contact us for a free confidential conversation about how we can hold perpetrators and institutions accountable and create a safer world for children now and in the future.
Will Speaking Out About my Abuse Make Any Difference in How These Institutions Act?
Yes, you can make a tangible difference by coming forward.
In fact, the only reason that we have seen any institutional change in the Catholic Church is because brave survivors, such as you or those you know, spoke out and demanded accountability in the courts and the media.
Every survivor’s voice matters. You will make a difference.
How Does Covering Up Abuse Benefit an Institution?
The reasons institutions cover-up sexual abuse are many and include:
- Denial of the shocking reality that such a thing could possibly happen within the institution.
- Institutional self-protection from shame, embarrassment, scandal, prosecution, and lawsuits.
The “normalization” of abuse from corrupt institutional practices of shielding sexual abuse perpetrators from consequences.
Although child sexual abuse and cover-up are pervasive, coming forward and reporting abuse is one of the most powerful things that survivors can do to stop the cycle.
We have learned about these strategies only because brave survivors have come forward (in the civil courts and elsewhere) and demanded accountability.
We have decades of experience, exposing clergy child sexual abuse crimes in many other institutions. Contact us for a free confidential conversation about how we can hold perpetrators and institutions accountable, and create a safer world for children now and in the future.