16 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 8, 2017
Prosecuting Child Sexual Abuse in Alternative Religions
Andrea Willeya and Stephen A. Kentb*
a Duncan Craig LLP, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada b Department of Sociology, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Abstract
0F
1
In this article, we identify three different levels
of court procedures (criminal, civil, and family)
in which child sexual-abuse allegations are most
likely to appear within the context of high-
demand alternative religions, sometimes called
sects or cults. We then specify strategies that
these religious groups or their members have
used in their defenses, along with appropriate
counterstrategies with which prosecutors have
responded. Our position is that, if prosecutors
can see such cases go to trial without further
traumatizing abuse survivors, then they should
do so. Trials’ conclusions provide opportunities
for clear (and often written) decisions that
clarify what roles, if any, the alternative
religions as organizations played in the abuses.
Such decisions likely will impact remaining sect
or cult members and even potential recruits
about the legal and moral dimensions of the
groups themselves. An alternative position,
however, is that groups holding responsibility
for child sexual abuse should experience
pressure from authorities to compensate
survivors without costly trials, since such trials
may deplete resources away from survivors’
assistance.
Keywords: alternative religions, cults, child
sexual abuse, pedophilia, child sexual-abuse
prosecution
Alternative religions2
1F
frequently have tense
relationships with mainstream cultures. In
*Corresponding coauthor.
1 This article is a revised version of a presentation delivered at the
July 2016 International Cultic Association Conference in Dallas,
Texas.
2 The term alternative religions refers to groups that are outside of
the main religious traditions of a particular society. They may
represent the faiths of minority populations, sectarian schisms
within existing groups, or new religious appearances with little if
any precedents in a culture. If they arise within the milieu of social
Canada and the United States, their religious
dimensions provide them with protections
provided by the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms and the United States Constitution,
especially its Bill of Rights. Nevertheless,
aspects of their doctrines and operations keep
the public suspicious of the ‘true’ natures of
such groups. The most damaging allegations that
alternative religions can suffer involve ones
related to various forms of member harm.
Physical and sexual assaults,
2F
3 medical neglect,4
3F
upheaval, they may hold varying degrees of hostility to mainstream
society and its religious traditions. They also may embody the
idiosyncratic, and sometimes harmful, beliefs of their founders.
Cults simply are groups whose beliefs or practices or both are at
significant variance from those of the mainstream culture. These
terms overlap, and controversies exist about the high demands that
many of these groups place upon members’ time, resources, and
social affiliations. Many of the child sexual-abuse cases that we
consider involve new religions or new religious movements
(NRMS), which simply mean that the groups formed in the West
after the Second World War. For an overview of how some
alternative religions use their theologies to justify child sexual
abuse, see Stephen A. Kent, “Religious Justifications for Child
Sexual Abuse in Cults and Alternative Religions,” International
Journal of Cultic Studies, 2 (2012), 49–73. For a study that
assessed risk factors involving child sexual abuse within
fundamentalist Protestant families, see Ruth Stout-Miller, Larry S.
Miller, and Mary R. Langenbrunner, “Religiosity and Child Sexual
Abuse: A Risk Factor Analysis,” Journal of Child Sexual Abuse,
6(4) (1997), 15–34. It found that, “first, persons coming from a
fundamentalist Protestant religious family background were more
at risk of being sexually abused by a relative. Second, persons
coming from a home with little or no religious involvement were
more at risk of being sexually abused by a non-relative” (pp. 30–
31). Also see David A. Wolfe, Karen J. Francis, and Anna-Lee
Straatman, “Child Abuse in Religiously Affiliated Institutions:
Long-term Impact on Men’s Mental Health,” Child Abuse and
Neglect, 30 (2006), 205–212. Livia Bardin’s 2009 study of the
childhood experiences of maltreatment in the Fundamentalist
Latter-day Saints and The Family [International] referred to these
groups both as cults and isolated authoritarian groups (Livia
Bardin, “Recognizing and Working with an Underserved Culture:
Child Protection and Cults,” Journal of Public Child Welfare, 3
[2009], 114–138).
3 Janet Heimlich, 2011, Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on
Religious Child Maltreatment, pp. 75–120, 167–214 (Amherst,
NY: Prometheus Books) and Karel Kurst-Swanger, 2008, Worship
and Sin: An Exploration of Religion-Related Crime in the United
States, pp. 73–92 (New York, NY: Peter Lang).
Prosecuting Child Sexual Abuse in Alternative Religions
Andrea Willeya and Stephen A. Kentb*
a Duncan Craig LLP, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada b Department of Sociology, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Abstract
0F
1
In this article, we identify three different levels
of court procedures (criminal, civil, and family)
in which child sexual-abuse allegations are most
likely to appear within the context of high-
demand alternative religions, sometimes called
sects or cults. We then specify strategies that
these religious groups or their members have
used in their defenses, along with appropriate
counterstrategies with which prosecutors have
responded. Our position is that, if prosecutors
can see such cases go to trial without further
traumatizing abuse survivors, then they should
do so. Trials’ conclusions provide opportunities
for clear (and often written) decisions that
clarify what roles, if any, the alternative
religions as organizations played in the abuses.
Such decisions likely will impact remaining sect
or cult members and even potential recruits
about the legal and moral dimensions of the
groups themselves. An alternative position,
however, is that groups holding responsibility
for child sexual abuse should experience
pressure from authorities to compensate
survivors without costly trials, since such trials
may deplete resources away from survivors’
assistance.
Keywords: alternative religions, cults, child
sexual abuse, pedophilia, child sexual-abuse
prosecution
Alternative religions2
1F
frequently have tense
relationships with mainstream cultures. In
*Corresponding coauthor.
1 This article is a revised version of a presentation delivered at the
July 2016 International Cultic Association Conference in Dallas,
Texas.
2 The term alternative religions refers to groups that are outside of
the main religious traditions of a particular society. They may
represent the faiths of minority populations, sectarian schisms
within existing groups, or new religious appearances with little if
any precedents in a culture. If they arise within the milieu of social
Canada and the United States, their religious
dimensions provide them with protections
provided by the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms and the United States Constitution,
especially its Bill of Rights. Nevertheless,
aspects of their doctrines and operations keep
the public suspicious of the ‘true’ natures of
such groups. The most damaging allegations that
alternative religions can suffer involve ones
related to various forms of member harm.
Physical and sexual assaults,
2F
3 medical neglect,4
3F
upheaval, they may hold varying degrees of hostility to mainstream
society and its religious traditions. They also may embody the
idiosyncratic, and sometimes harmful, beliefs of their founders.
Cults simply are groups whose beliefs or practices or both are at
significant variance from those of the mainstream culture. These
terms overlap, and controversies exist about the high demands that
many of these groups place upon members’ time, resources, and
social affiliations. Many of the child sexual-abuse cases that we
consider involve new religions or new religious movements
(NRMS), which simply mean that the groups formed in the West
after the Second World War. For an overview of how some
alternative religions use their theologies to justify child sexual
abuse, see Stephen A. Kent, “Religious Justifications for Child
Sexual Abuse in Cults and Alternative Religions,” International
Journal of Cultic Studies, 2 (2012), 49–73. For a study that
assessed risk factors involving child sexual abuse within
fundamentalist Protestant families, see Ruth Stout-Miller, Larry S.
Miller, and Mary R. Langenbrunner, “Religiosity and Child Sexual
Abuse: A Risk Factor Analysis,” Journal of Child Sexual Abuse,
6(4) (1997), 15–34. It found that, “first, persons coming from a
fundamentalist Protestant religious family background were more
at risk of being sexually abused by a relative. Second, persons
coming from a home with little or no religious involvement were
more at risk of being sexually abused by a non-relative” (pp. 30–
31). Also see David A. Wolfe, Karen J. Francis, and Anna-Lee
Straatman, “Child Abuse in Religiously Affiliated Institutions:
Long-term Impact on Men’s Mental Health,” Child Abuse and
Neglect, 30 (2006), 205–212. Livia Bardin’s 2009 study of the
childhood experiences of maltreatment in the Fundamentalist
Latter-day Saints and The Family [International] referred to these
groups both as cults and isolated authoritarian groups (Livia
Bardin, “Recognizing and Working with an Underserved Culture:
Child Protection and Cults,” Journal of Public Child Welfare, 3
[2009], 114–138).
3 Janet Heimlich, 2011, Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on
Religious Child Maltreatment, pp. 75–120, 167–214 (Amherst,
NY: Prometheus Books) and Karel Kurst-Swanger, 2008, Worship
and Sin: An Exploration of Religion-Related Crime in the United
States, pp. 73–92 (New York, NY: Peter Lang).
