Abstract
Prior to 2002, little was known about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. After the Boston Globe broke the story about John Geoghan - a priest in the Boston Archdiocese who was accused of abusing numerous children, convicted of one count of indecent assault, and eventually murdered in prison - the Church had many questions to answer. To this end, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned John Jay College of Criminal Justice to research the nature and scope, as well as the causes and context of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. This research analyzes the data from the John Jay studies using a new quantitative technique, capable of adjusting for distortions introduced by delays in abuse reporting. By isolating discontinuities in model parameter timeseries, we determine changes in reporting patterns occurred during the period 1982-1988. A posteriori to the analysis, we provide some possible explanations for the changes in abuse reporting associated with the change-point. While the scope of this paper is limited to presenting a new methodological approach within the frame of a particular case study, the techniques are more broadly applicable in settings where reporting lag is manifested.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 253-262 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Social Science Research |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2012 |
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Keywords
- Abuse disclosure
- Catholic Church
- Clergy
- Model parameter timeseries
- Sexual abuse
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Sociology and Political Science
Cite this
Assessing reporting patterns of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church using discontinuities in model parameter timeseries. / Ackerman, Alissa R.; Khan, Bilal.
In: Social Science Research, Vol. 41, No. 2, 01.03.2012, p. 253-262.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing reporting patterns of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church using discontinuities in model parameter timeseries
AU - Ackerman, Alissa R.
AU - Khan, Bilal
PY - 2012/3/1
Y1 - 2012/3/1
N2 - Prior to 2002, little was known about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. After the Boston Globe broke the story about John Geoghan - a priest in the Boston Archdiocese who was accused of abusing numerous children, convicted of one count of indecent assault, and eventually murdered in prison - the Church had many questions to answer. To this end, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned John Jay College of Criminal Justice to research the nature and scope, as well as the causes and context of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. This research analyzes the data from the John Jay studies using a new quantitative technique, capable of adjusting for distortions introduced by delays in abuse reporting. By isolating discontinuities in model parameter timeseries, we determine changes in reporting patterns occurred during the period 1982-1988. A posteriori to the analysis, we provide some possible explanations for the changes in abuse reporting associated with the change-point. While the scope of this paper is limited to presenting a new methodological approach within the frame of a particular case study, the techniques are more broadly applicable in settings where reporting lag is manifested.
AB - Prior to 2002, little was known about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. After the Boston Globe broke the story about John Geoghan - a priest in the Boston Archdiocese who was accused of abusing numerous children, convicted of one count of indecent assault, and eventually murdered in prison - the Church had many questions to answer. To this end, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned John Jay College of Criminal Justice to research the nature and scope, as well as the causes and context of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. This research analyzes the data from the John Jay studies using a new quantitative technique, capable of adjusting for distortions introduced by delays in abuse reporting. By isolating discontinuities in model parameter timeseries, we determine changes in reporting patterns occurred during the period 1982-1988. A posteriori to the analysis, we provide some possible explanations for the changes in abuse reporting associated with the change-point. While the scope of this paper is limited to presenting a new methodological approach within the frame of a particular case study, the techniques are more broadly applicable in settings where reporting lag is manifested.
KW - Abuse disclosure
KW - Catholic Church
KW - Clergy
KW - Model parameter timeseries
KW - Sexual abuse
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VL - 41
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JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
SN - 0049-089X
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