There are significant differences between institutional or organizational child sex abuse and individual child sex abuse. In organizational or institutional sex abuse cases, an institution played a key role in allowing the abuse to happen. Many countries are now facing large-scale institutional child sex abuse scandals, such as the decade-long abuses in the Catholic Churches.
Institutional child sex abuse looks at the inadequate policies and procedures in place that failed to protect the children from the adults sexually abusing them. Further, lawsuits highlight the values these institutions place on protecting their reputations rather than protecting their members. The lawsuits show that the institutions continuously hid the complaints brought against members who have committed sexual abuse against the children. The organizational child sex abuse cases are generally centered around the fact that the leadership within the organizations hid the abuses from the public and also failed to involve legal enforcement and police authorities to investigate any complaints victims brought to the institutions.
Ultimately, child sex abuse becomes organizational child sex abuse when the institutions that the perpetrators do not respond appropriately to the claims brought against those perpetrators. The lack of response (or collective inaction) thus leads to numerous sexual abuses of children, often reaching the thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Individual child sex abuse is in reference to an individual committing the sexual abuse to the child, such as a family member, teacher, coach, mentor, stranger, or other adult involving a child in sexual activity.
Perpetrators of Child Sex Abuse
The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network reports that around 93% of child sex abuse victims know their abusers. In organizational child sex abuse, the individual abusers themselves are the perpetrators. However, in these cases the institution that allowed the abuse can be included as a defendant as well. The institutions fail to educate themselves on not only being able to recognize their individual community members who are abusing children but also in their responses once the perpetrators are known. This is evident in the Boy Scouts child sex abuse cases, the Catholic Church child sex abuse cases, school sex abuse cases, and the USA Gymnastics sex abuse cases.
Individual sex abuse cases are often thought to be rare events perpetrated by male strangers against little girls. However, child sex abuse is a widespread occurrence that happens to millions of both boys and girls alike, in all types of communities, across many cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that around 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys are victims of child sex abuse at some point throughout their childhoods.
Regardless of whether the abuse is organizational or individual, the fact is that the abuse occurs and is more often than not at the hands of people the child knows. The difference in the cases victims file is whether an institution helped facilitate the abuse by failing to prevent or take action after the institution discovered the abuse.
Patterns of Abuse
The patterns seen in the organizational child sex abuse cases include decades-long abuse claims brought to the attention of the organization’s leadership, cover-ups by the leadership, and transfers of the abusers to other parts of the community where the fact that he was an abuser was unknown.
In both the Catholic Church and Boy Scout cases, courts have found that both institutions had repeatedly covered up the abuse by their members. Rather than protecting the children being abused by the perpetrators, the institution’s leadership protected their organizations.
Legal Issues
A significant issue in any child sex abuse case is that children rarely tell anyone about the abuse immediately after it happens. However, globally and nationwide, legislatures are changing laws to allow victims to continue to bring cases against both institutions and individuals for the abuse endured as a child, even if the abuse happened years ago.
In Michigan, the legislature passed Public Acts 180 and 181, which allows victims to bring a claim 15 years after the abuse happened, or before the victim’s 28th birthday, whichever is later. The state passed this legislation in response to the USA Gymnastics sex abuse that occurred at the hands of Dr. Larry Nassar.
In Texas, the state legislature extended the statute of limitations to 30 years after the victim turned 18 years old. The statute initially excluded institutions from the extension, however, after pushback from a trio of former gymnasts that were abused by Dr. Larry Nassar, the Senate restored the language to include institutions.
In some states, such as California and New York, legislatures have enacted laws that provide for short-term expansions of the statutes of limitations on child sex abuse claims. This means that for a certain amount of time, victims who were abused as children, even if the abuse happened decades ago, can file civil and criminal claims against the individuals and institutions.
The Florida Governor approved a bill in July 2020 that states that there is no statute of limitations for child abuse victims under the age of 16.
Institutional Child Sex Abuse Settlements
Dr. Larry Nassar sexually abused hundreds of gymnasts and athletes, which recently led to a $500 million settlement related to those claims.
The Catholic Church has known about allegations of sexual abuse nationwide and globally since the 1950s. The number of perpetrators and victims was so large that it was difficult to assess in reports. However, some reports state that the Catholic Church has paid nearly $4 billion since the 1980s to child abuse victims within the church.
The Boy Scouts of America has received reports of child sex abuse for decades. The settlements are continuing to this day, as many of the lawsuits filed have come out in recent years. Most recently in February 2020, the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter bankruptcy to create a trust to pay out the victims and attempt to reorganize the institution.