Abuse in Religious Settings is a two-and-a-half year project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which will end in June 2024.
Our overall research project is made up of seven individual pieces of research. These are:
- A literature-review exploring cultural and organisational factors relating to abuse in religious contexts and comparing these with comparable factors in non-religious settings (overseen by Gordon Lynch)
- A workshop-based study of the ways in which sacred texts are used in harmful or constructive ways in relation to abuse in religious contexts (led by Johanna Stiebert)
- A secondary analysis of material held by INFORM about the nature and contexts of abuse in minority or ‘new’ religious movements (led by Sarah Harvey)
- An international review of legal and policy approaches to abuse and safeguarding in religious contexts including issues of mandatory reporting, regulation and over-sight and other factors relating to abuse (led by Richard Scorer)
- A survey and interview-based study of experiences of engagement between safeguarding professionals in statutory agencies, faith communities and survivors (led by Justin Humphries)
- An interview-based study of learning from survivors about factors and resources that have supported their resilience (led by Linda Woodhead and Jo Kind)
- A photo-elicitation based study of survivors’ experiences of disclosure and non-disclosure in relation to abuse in religious contexts (led by Lisa Oakley and Jenny Hardy)