Fox Professor of Practice, University of Pennsylvania, CHILD, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2017 Dec;74:107-110. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.10.004.
There is an often-overlooked but critical factor at the center of institutional child sexual abuse that must be acknowledged and addressed: adults tend to place the interest of institutions and other adults above the protection of children. As the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has shown, this phenomenon is evident across institutional settings and any institutional reform aimed at improving child safety must therefore guard against this tendency if it is to be effective in protecting children. In the United States there are also other barriers to dealing with child sexual abuse in institutional contexts. State government responses to the challenges of child sexual abuse have varied. However, the federal governmsent has been silent on the problem of religious institutional sexual abuse. This commentary considers how the politics of religious liberty in the United States inhibits action by protecting institutions that cover up child sexual abuse.
在机构性虐待儿童的核心，存在一个经常被忽视但至关重要的因素，必须得到承认和解决：成年人往往更倾向于将机构和其他成年人的利益置于儿童的保护之上。正如澳大利亚机构对儿童性虐待问题的皇家委员会所表明的那样，这种现象在各种机构环境中都很明显，因此，任何旨在提高儿童安全的机构改革，如果要有效地保护儿童，就必须防止这种趋势。在美国，机构环境中处理儿童性虐待问题也存在其他障碍。州政府对儿童性虐待挑战的反应各不相同。然而，联邦政府对宗教机构性虐待问题保持沉默。本评论考虑了美国宗教自由政治如何通过保护掩盖儿童性虐待的机构来阻碍行动。
