APRI Highlights - Winter 2003

NCPCA Launches Faith-Based Initiative

Victor Vieth, Director, National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse

Although the faith and child protection communities share a common goal of helping children, these communities are often at odds with one another. There are many reasons for this. Studies indicate that members of the faith community often fail to report suspected cases of abuse. Even worse, they often actively support alleged child abusers by appearing as character witnesses for the accused or otherwise assisting in their defense. Some churches are perceived as “hiding” clergy accused of abusing children. In cases of child abuse and domestic violence, some members of the faith community counsel victims to forgive their abusers without accountability under the criminal law and suggest the doctrine of submission requires endurance of the abuse.

The problem, though, is not one-sided. Members of the child protection community often assume the hostility of the faith community and fail to involve them in child protection initiatives. In some cases, we are culturally insensitive to someone’s faith and fail to work within an individual’s culture to protect a child. In many cases, the separation of church and state leads us to ignore a child’s needs. For example, victims have asked child protection professionals questions such as “am I still a virgin in God’s eyes?” If we ignore questions such as this, we are ignoring both a child’s faith and mental health needs.

In an attempt to bridge the divide between our faith and child protection systems, NCPCA has begun to write, teach, and collaborate on this issue. We have designed a workshop that proposes concrete strategies to bring these communities together. We have written a chapter on this subject that will be part of the book Medical and Legal Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation to be published by G.W. Publishing in the spring of 2003. We will also be convening a working group of prestigious members of the faith and child protection communities that will seek to fully identify the sources of friction between these communities and, more importantly, propose solutions.

If you are interested in having NCPCA teach on this subject in your community, or would like more information, please contact us at (703) 549-4253 or ncpca@ndaa-apri.org.