DRI Launches First Study

The Dulles Research Institute is proud to announce the launch of its first original research project, a qualitative study of accused priests. The title of the study is:

“Priests' Beliefs, Experiences, and Identities Over the Life Course, and How These Interact Within Specific Situational Contexts to Enable Sexual Malfeasance.”

Under the direction of Dr. Lisa L. Sample, a criminologist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a founding Board member of the Dulles Research Institute, the DRI is setting out to gather in-depth life histories from 50 Catholic priests who have been removed from ministry because of accusations of sexual malfeasance. Collaborating with Dr. Sample are Sarah Steele, also of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a team of researchers from Sample and Associates, LLC. The project is operating under approval from the Institutional Review Board of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (protocol #334-19-FB).

Unlike prior studies investigating sexual malfeasance in the priesthood, which have typically relied on existing documents or interviews with church officials, the DRI study has researchers speaking directly to the priests themselves in order to understand their life stories.

Much media and scholarly attention has been dedicated to sexual malfeasance committed by Catholic priests (Alexander and Birzer, 2015; Berry, 2000; Bottoms, Shaver, Goodman, and Qin, 1995; Laaser, 1991; Terry and Freilich, 2012). Extant research has attributed sexual malfeasance by priests to individual psychological pathologies (Saradjian and Nobus, 2003; Thompson, Marolla, and Bromley, 1998), misuse of power and trust (Rossetti, 1990, 1996), the Catholic Church hierarchy and structure (Blanchard, 1991; Bruni and Burkett, 2002; Laaser, 1991), socialization processes (Anderson, 2016), sexual immaturity (Frawley-ODea, 2004), and/or Catholic celibacy policies (Garrett, 2013). The problem with many of these findings is that few scholars have actually spoken to priests accused of sexual misconduct (Saradjian and Nobus, 2003). Also, current research has only examined interconnected cognitive processes shortly before, during, and directly after acts of sexual misconduct. These studies fail to assess joint processes that may have developed long before incidents occurred. These gaps in the literature prompted the present study.

Theoretically, it is rare that behaviors result solely from cognitive processes operating independently from beliefs, affective states, and personal and role identities (Burke and Stets, 2009; Spencer, 1999). In fact, social scientists have often found significant correlations between how people see themselves (identity) and how they behave (Burke and Reitzes, 1981; Paternoster and Bushway, 2009; Rocque, Posick, and Paternoster, 2016). We often see ourselves as others see us (Cooley, 1902), thus, internalizing and formulating identities based on a combination of internal and external stimuli. The situational context of identity is captured by roles or by the multiple identities we assume based on our reference groups (e.g., high school football team, PTA, book club). As we transition from childhood into adulthood, our role identities evolve, fluctuate, and desist based on the start or discontinuation of our reference groups. We can have multiple role identities (e.g., mother, sister, teacher) at any given time, but a hierarchy is often established when one of the roles becomes the master status (Hughes, 1945; Stryker and Burke, 2000). To date, we could find no studies that examine the personal and role identities of priests and how these interact with behavior. This will be the first study of its kind to explore priests’ identities and their transformations over time, and how these may affect behavior; the study will seek to detect how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs interact within a number of specific situational contexts to produce sexual malfeasance among Catholic priests.

Priests removed from ministry because of sexual malfeasance are welcome to enroll in the study by visiting www.DullesResearchInstitute.org/studies or by calling (402) 619-3777.

The Dulles Research Institute’s first original research project is made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.