Project Details
Projekt
Knowledge about ‘third parties’ in the Catholic context. Dynamics of abuse of power and sexual violence against children and adolescents
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Sabine Andresen
Subject Area
Roman Catholic Theology
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 534685649
Children and young people grow up in families, meet people in their neighbourhood, attend schools and educational institutions, go to sports or other leisure activities, church services or church youth groups. They spend their everyday lives with very different adults and peers. In cases of abuse of power and sexual violence, this becomes an important asset. In principle, victims could receive help from these outside parties. Parents, teachers and all people that children and young people encounter in their everyday lives can therefore become ‘third parties’ - observers, witnesses, but also helpers. They thus influence the form and extent of vulnerability to abuse of power and sexual violence. This is where the project comes in: insights into the conditions of vulnerability of individuals and systems are to be gained by analysing the published stories of affected people as well as the available documentation from national and international commissions on the abuse of power and sexual violence in the Catholic Church. In research, the view of ‘third parties’ has so far been underexposed. This project examines where and how they were present, whether and how they increased or reduced the vulnerability of the children and young people affected and which role generational and gender relations as well as the Catholic environment played in the interpretation and actions of the ‘third parties’. The project has three focal points: first, the analysis of documentation and reports by national and international commissions on the ‘Third’, on vulnerability and on the relevance of generational and gender relations. Second, the analysis of digitally available reports from affected people aged 18 to 95. Here, too, the focus is on information from those affected about the ‘third parties’, generational and gender orders and the relevance of the Catholic or religious context. In the third step, the results obtained will be discussed in focus groups and creative future-orientated workshops with members of Catholic communities. The main objective of the overall proposal is addressed here: Abuse-sensitive reflection and reconceptualisation of power.
DFG Programme
Research Units
