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As part of our collaboration on research with the Global Safeguarding Alliance, the Institute of Child Protection Studies has conducted two projects.

1. WISE

WE are currently conducting a research project: Women's Insights into Safeguarding Efforts in the Catholic Church (WISE). This global research project seeks to understand how religious and lay women experience safeguarding practices within the Catholic Church. We are gathering insights from women across different countries via an online survey. Participants will include nuns, sisters, and lay women who are active in Church life, and women working in the Church (both Catholic and non-Catholic). The study will explore their experiences with current safeguarding measures, their ideas for improvement, and their views on the risks posed by both men and women within Church settings.

Read more about the WISE project

2. A global perspective

In the wake of historical sexual abuse across the Catholic Church globally, the Church continues to develop policies and processes to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse, including supporting the skills, knowledge, and confidence of members of the Church. We conducted research that investigated the safeguarding capabilities of a range of people with different roles within Catholic Church ministries in seven countries.

Our research attracted 184 participants who included lay people, religious men and women, school staff, safeguarding officers and tertiary students associated with the Catholic Church. We measured the awareness, confidence, attitudes, and knowledge of participants and examined differences between participants in different roles within the Church and different countries through General Linear Models.

We found varying levels of awareness, confidence, attitudes, and knowledge regarding sexual abuse prevention and safeguarding. We pinpointed the significant differences in three of these domains (confidence, attitudes, and knowledge) both between people with different roles in the church worldwide, but also between the countries from which participants came from.

Read the published paper (open access):