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Understanding the Experiences of Religious Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse

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Book cover Sexual Crime, Religion and Spirituality

Part of the book series: Sexual Crime ((SEXCR))

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Abstract

Research into the link between sexual offending and religion has typically centred around religious authority figures. This chapter shifts focus to fill a gap in the literature around the impact of religious beliefs and narratives on the process of desistance, or not, for people convicted of sexual offences. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of interview transcripts identified four superordinate themes. Two of these themes, the ‘god effect’ and the ‘shadow side’, are discussed. Conclusions from this research showed that the religious narratives constructed by participants can be both protective and risky in relation to criminogenic factors. The authors suggest that religious narratives should be considered in context when assessing individual risk.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This theme (redemption) and the themes in this paper have been adapted and published elsewhere.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Daniel Micklethwaite, Nicholas Blagden & Belinda Winder

Authors
  1. Daniel Micklethwaite
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  2. Nicholas Blagden
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  3. Belinda Winder
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Correspondence to Daniel Micklethwaite .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Belinda Winder

  2. Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Nicholas Blagden

  3. HMP Whatton, Nottingham, UK

    Kerensa Hocken

  4. Psychology & Counselling, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK

    Helen Elliott

  5. Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Rebecca Lievesley

  6. Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Phil Banyard

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Micklethwaite, D., Blagden, N., Winder, B. (2019). Understanding the Experiences of Religious Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse. In: Winder, B., Blagden, N., Hocken, K., Elliott, H., Lievesley, R., Banyard, P. (eds) Sexual Crime, Religion and Spirituality. Sexual Crime. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26040-8_5

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