Clergy, Sexual Abuse by

Major recognition of the scope of the problem of sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy emerged in the United States in 2002 after the Boston Globe published a series of investigative articles on the topic. Reporters were able to subpoena records never before made public that documented both the extent of reports of abuse and, even more shockingly, the extent of the cover-up of such reports by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. The pattern of abuse and later cover-up was subsequently reported in many other Catholic archdioceses across the United States and gave weight to reports of abuse by members of the clergy that had been made sporadically from the 1960s on. Although the scandal primarily involved Catholic priests who ...