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Gabrielle Hunt, Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University
Porticus
This project aims to investigate how gender dynamics and norms within Christian religious settings influence the victimisation and perpetration of child sexual abuse and the effectiveness of safeguarding practices. It seeks to generate community-informed evidence to improve approaches to child protection in faith-based settings.
Child sexual abuse in religious settings has gained attention following inquiries such as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of how gender shapes vulnerability, perpetration and protection within these contexts. Recent findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) reveal that boys are disproportionately victimised in religious institutions, while girls remain at higher risk in familial and peer contexts.
This research will help us understand how gender roles and norms within faith-based settings contribute to both risk and protection. It will examine community-informed understandings of what effective, gender-sensitive safeguarding practice looks like in practice. As part of the research, we will look at children and women's experiences in leadership and safeguarding, and how these insights can inform better policy and practice to protect children and young people. We will also conduct interviews with cross-disciplinary experts including theologians.
We have conducted interviews with religious leaders on the perspectives of safeguarding practices; the women interviewed revealed the significant role women often play in safeguarding within faith-based settings. The women discussed how they often take on responsibility despite their under-representation in senior leadership and the predominance of male perpetrators. These findings underscore the need for deeper examination of how gendered power dynamics shape both experiences of abuse and the capacity for effective prevention and response in faith-based settings.
This project will apply a number of methods:
The findings from this research will be of interest to religious leaders and organisations, child protection and safeguarding professionals, policymakers, survivor advocacy groups, and parents and caregivers. Findings will be made available as recommendations for safeguarding policy and practice, with the aim of improving safeguarding approaches for women, victim-survivors and young people, particularly in faith-based settings.
Hunt, G. R, Higgins, D. J., & Willis, M. (2025). "Just tick the box and move on": Religious leaders reflect on safeguarding practices in their setting. Child Abuse & Neglect, 167, art. no. 107591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107591
Ethics is overseen by Australian Catholic University Human Research Ethics Committee.
July 2025 - June 2027
For more information contact: Gabrielle Hunt
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