Clergy Sexual Abuse: Social Science Perspectives

4. Contingent Crimes: Exploring the Sexual Abuse of Children by Clerics from a Situational Crime Perspective

Paul D. Steele 4 Contingent Crimes Exploring the Sexual Abuse of Children by Clerics from a Situational Crime Perspective Introduction Acts of child sexual abuse (CSA) committed by members of the clergy have been described as betrayals of trust (Nason-Clark 1998), “spiritual rape” (Barton 2012, 62), organizational failures (Rosetti 1997), and even “dumb mistakes” (Dorris 2011). They are also violations of state and federal criminal laws. Therefore , theories concerning the etiology of crime can provide a useful perspective from which to plan strategies to control clergy-involved CSA. According to Sutherland (1947), theories of crime can be characterized as either dispositional or situational in nature. Dispositional theories attribute the causes of crime to the personal traits and characteristics of individuals. Popular dispositional explanations have associated crime with the offender’s intelligence level, mental health, impulse control, physiological and cognitive development, socialization processes, childhood trauma, peer associations, social class origin, ethnicity, employment, educational attainment, and respect for authority. Since the emergence of positivist orientations in the nineteenth century, the primary effort of crime theoreticians has been the development and refinement of dispositional theories. It is not surprising, then, that contemporary thinking about CSA, both among scholars and the general public, places great emphasis on the distinctive pathological traits of those who engage in these acts (Wortley and Smallbone 2006). This is certainly the case in research concerning the etiology of CSA perpetrated by clerics (see, for example, Doyle 2007; Falkenhain 1997; Hanson, Pfafflin, and Lutz 2004; Haywood et al. 1996; Kennedy and Heckler 1972; Langevin, Curnoe, and Bain 2000; Plante 2007; Plante and Aldridge 2005; and Plante, Manuel, and Bryant 1996). In contrast, situational theories focus on the participants, environmental 60 Contingent Crimes | 61 context, and circumstances of the immediate criminal event. In a field dominated by theories that stress the trait and character differences between criminals and law-abiding citizens, situational crime theory (SCT) has nonetheless emerged since the 1980s from opportunity and environmental crime theories, symbolic interactionism, and experimental psychology (Birkbeck and LaFree 1993). The principal reason for the growing acceptance of the situational crime perspective is that there is an increasing awareness of the limitations of explanations of crime based solely on the personal traits of offenders (Birkbeck and LaFree 1993). Improvements in data collection, analysis strategies, and computer applications have facilitated the development of new methods of situational crime analysis, and the findings of situational crime research have provided the information necessary for initiating effective forms of crime prevention and intervention. This chapter explores clergy-involved CSA through the application of SCT. Key elements of this criminal behavior are described from this perspective, and SCT is conceptually extended to link it with relevant research. I conclude with recommendations for improved control of clergy-involved CSA based on this analysis. The Situational Crime Perspective Effective prevention of and intervention in criminal events requires an understanding of the situations in which they occur. Although scholars vary somewhat in their definitions of a “criminal situation,” they generally refer to the immediate objective and subjective setting in which the crime occurs (Furnham and Argyle 1981; Magnusson 1981; Pervin 1978; Stebbins 1972). Early opportunity theorists assume that there is a sufficient supply of motivated offenders to commit crimes, and that crimes are likely to occur when a suitable target (either a physical object in a property crime, or a person in a violent crime) is available and accessible and is not well protected by a capable guardian (Cohen and Felson 1979). Environmental criminologists have extended SCT by pointing out that all crimes occur in situations that are defined by their physical and temporal space. Situational space influences the offender’s awareness of and access to crime targets, his or her chances of avoiding detection, and the effectiveness of guardians in protecting the targets (Brantingham and Brantingham 1984, 1991). Symbolic interactionists emphasize that participant behaviors are constantly formed and reshaped by their past experiences and the circumstances present in the immediate situations in which actors find themselves (Katz 1990). 62 | Paul D. Steele An extensive body of information derived from experimental psychological research concludes that the motivation level of potential offenders is influenced by the precipitating or inhibiting elements of the situation in which they find themselves (Birkbeck and Lafree 1993). For example, frustrated individuals are more likely to commit aggressive offenses when they perceive that others are intentionally blocking the realization of their own intentions (Averill 1982), or when...