Clerical training fostered a predisposition to perpetrate child sexual abuse, study shows

"The study involved nine clergy who had perpetrated child sexual abuse and were attending professional psychotherapy. The interview schedules with the offenders were taken from a thematic analysis of a random selection of 'life stories' (autobiographical accounts of participants' life histories completed as part of group therapy). All of the participants displayed significant difficulties forming friendships and close relationships, a condition common among perpetrators of child sexual abuse. "What appears among our study participants, and therefore is likely for other clerical offenders, is the experience of a culture and system that failed to re-balance or correct any early problems they may have had but rather acted to compound them through the strict imposition of certain beliefs and ideology," adds Dr D'Alton...."

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-clerical-fostered-predisposition-perpetrate-child.html