Overview
- Takes a novel, exclusively sociological approach in analyzing the structural roots of clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic hierarchy as a clerical community
- Applies a social disorganization perspective to the current clerical sexual abuses in the Catholic Church
- Analyzes the disorganizing effects of mandatory clerical celibacy and weak lay participation to the Catholic hierarchy
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies (BRIEFSRESTU)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
- Catholic Clerical Sexual Abuse
- Social Disorganization
- Catholic Hierachy
- Social networks in the Catholic Church
- Clerical celibacy
- Clerical Abuse in the Catholic Hierarchy
- Sexual Scandals in the Catholic Church
- Lay empowerment
- Social Interaction of the Clergy
- Supervision of Clerical Behavior in the Hierarchy
- Social Disorganization Theory
- Social control
- Catholic Laity
- Social Bonding in the Clerical Community
About this book
This book, as an exploratory sociological analysis, broadly examines the major structural factors which contribute to the social disorganization of the Catholic hierarchy as a clerical community, facilitating the persistence of clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Using some tenets of the social disorganization theory on crime and deviance as the overall theoretical framework with some perspectives from social organization, social network, and social capital, and secondary literature and qualitative data to support the arguments, it examines the (1) diocesan clergy’s social interaction, mutual support, and social control system in the hierarchical community, (2) connection between mandated clerical celibacy and clerical sexual abuse, and (3) the implication of the laity’s lack of empowerment and ecclesiastical authority to monitor and sanction clerical behavior. The Catholic hierarchy prides itself as a unified community of clerics under the Pope who shares the one priesthood of Christ. But the current clerical sexual scandals and the inability of bishops to adequately manage clerical sexual abuse cases make one wonders whether the Catholic clergy is indeed a cohesive and socially organized community which inhibits clerical sexual abuse. This book invites Church authorities, theologians, scholars, and lay leaders to understand the persistent clerical sexual abuse empirically and to come up with structural reforms which enhance the social network and social control systems of the Catholic hierarchy against clerical sexual misconduct and support victims.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Sociological Perspectives on Clerical Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Hierarchy
Book Subtitle: An Exploratory Structural Analysis of Social Disorganisation
Authors: Vivencio O. Ballano
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8825-5
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-8824-8Published: 02 October 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-8825-5Published: 21 September 2019
Series ISSN: 2510-5035
Series E-ISSN: 2510-5043
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 97
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: Catholicism, Sociology of Religion, Sociological Theory, Social Aspects of Religion, Christian Theology