Examination of a Nascent Taxonomy of Priest Sexual Grooming.
Research has established that sexually abusive priests often use grooming strategies on victims. Recently, researchers have proposed a behavioral taxonomy used specifically by clergy who sexually abuse children. Because this nascent taxonomy has only been studied once using a limited sample of sexually abusive priests, we seek to replicate and expand on its findings using a sample of abusive clergy from a separate institution. Specifically, we analyzed files of 18 monks in Minnesota who were credibly accused of sexual abuse. Using a deductive approach, we searched through these files in an effort to find all instances of eight clergy sexual grooming behaviors that were identified in previous research by Spraitz, Bowen, and Strange. Our findings suggest there is evidence to support the existence of this taxonomy of priest sexual grooming, although we argue that certain aspects of the centerpiece technique of their classification scheme are faulty and must be studied more extensively.
['Spraitz|Jason D|JD|', 'Bowen|Kendra N|KN|']
D000328:Adult D002410:Catholicism D002648:Child D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual D002977:Clergy D057237:Criminals D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008910:Minnesota D012725:Sexual Behavior
taxonomy grooming clergy child sexual abuse content analysis