In a Dec 01, 2013 with the ABA Journal, Dr. Glenn Lipson with other experts addressed sexaul assault in religious communities.
“The victim was 12 when child sex offender Nechemya Weberman first assaulted her. Last January, at age 18, she dabbed at tears in her eyes as she spoke in a Brooklyn courtroom.
For years during and after the abuse, the woman said she would look in the mirror and see “a girl who didn’t want to live in her own skin,” the New York Times reported. “I would cry until the tears ran dry,” she told the court…
Weberman, an unlicensed therapist, was found guilty in December 2012 of 59 counts of sexual abuse, which carry a maximum combined sentence of 117 years. He was convicted of engaging in sexual misdeeds that included oral sex, groping and acting out pornographic videos, all during the therapy sessions that were meant to help the girl become more religious. The abuse lasted three years.
But as painful as the appearance was at Weberman’s sentencing hearing, so too was the harsh cultural ostracism that the victim and her family suffered for her testimony. As members of the Orthodox Jewish Satmar Hasidic community, the victim told the court, she and her family were harassed and shunned for reporting Weberman, also a member of the Hasidic community. And, according to trial testimony, her parents’ business was threatened, leading to fears that the family would no longer be able to support itself.
…Child abuse experts also say that when there’s one child sexual predator in a religious organization, there could also be more. Sexual predators, they say, tend to hide within a culture or religious hierarchy that either ignores or in some way condones their crimes. Members of religious communities that prefer to resolve their problems internally are particularly disinclined to report sexual predators within their midst, experts say.
‘In some ways, religion is a family,’ says San Diego forensic psychologist Glenn Lipson, who specializes in sexual misconduct issues. ‘In families, people can deny something is going on because they don’t want to see it and because admitting it would mean their world would collapse. The same can be true for religious communities, where people celebrate births and marriages together. There can be the same response—deny it, ignore it, reassign people.’
…But [Rhonnie] Jaus, chief of the Brooklyn district attorney’s Sex Crimes and Crimes Against Children Division, says that people in these communities who try to press charges against child sex abusers have faced all kinds of intimidation, including threats against their children’s ability to get an education and the success of their family businesses.
To break through the traditional reticence to submit to secular authorities, prosecutors must be respectful but relentless at the same time, forensic psychologist Dr Lipson says.
Dr Lipson urges caution for prosecutors approaching religious groups.
“You have to realize the building of these relationships will have to be gradual and done with respect for the traditions and convictions of the religious communities,” he says.
…’There is a certain slice of the population that commits this crime, and it’s obvious that working with youth gives you an opportunity,’ says University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock, a leading authority on the law of religious liberty. ‘Religious organizations are a place where you can work with youth.’
Dr. Glenn Lipson says that within certain organizations, ‘those in religious authority will at times abuse their position.’
‘In some of these organizations that are very hierarchical and authority-based, leaders are less subject to scrutiny,’ Lipson says. ‘Just as you would not question the center of the belief system, it’s not easy to question those who represent it. Faith gets intertwined with challenging your capacity to question a leader’s conduct.’
…’We’re in the midst of a revolution to protect children,’ says Hamilton. ‘Adults are not discounting children’s reports the way they used to, and victims are coming forward more confidently than they ever have before. Judges and juries are believing and supporting victims. But it’s not over yet—there is still much to be done to protect every one of our children.’
But perhaps the biggest change of all needs to come from within the religious groups themselves, according to Dr. Glenn Lipson.
Dr. Lipson advises religious organizations to make changes from within, so that they are already ensuring an appropriate attitude toward reporting crime. Religious organizations should opt for transparency and accountability, according to Lipson.
‘Religious institutions must have clearly stated policies and procedures. The policies must set up a structure for people to report issues, maintain boundaries and address problems,’ Dr Lipson says. ‘There must be supervision of individual conduct, and the clergy should be even more accountable because of the authority they have and the vulnerability people have when they approach a clergy member. People within an organization need to be trained to recognize red flags—in themselves and others.
‘We know evil thrives when good people stand by and do nothing.’, Dr. Lipson ends the article with these words of wisdom.
You can contact Dr. Glenn Lipson via the contact form of this website for more information on this ongoing serious situations.
By Glenn Lipson, PhD
October 27, 2015
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