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Keenan, Marie
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Keenan, Marie
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Keenan, Marie
Research Output
Now showing 1 - 10 of 15
- PublicationRestorative responses to sexual violence: an introductionSexual violence, in all its forms, is a crime for which anecdotal accounts and scholarly reports suggest victims in their great majority do not receive adequate 'justice' or redress. The theory and practice of restorative justice is rapidly developing and offers some well-argued new avenues for dealings with crime in general. It has the potential to be extended to cases of sexual violence and a number of small scale programmes are already underway across the world.Restorative Responses to Sexual Violence examines this innovative justice paradigm in more depth in the particular context of sexual trauma and violence in order to establish the empirical realities of restorative justice approaches in cases of sexual violence, and considers how such approaches could be developed adequately in the future. This book is divided into two parts, each representing a key area of research and practice: theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and justice and therapeutic perspectives.This international collection brings together leading expert scholars and practitioners to offer both theoretical and practical perspectives on restorative justice and sexual violence. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of law, criminology, psychology, social science, social work and psychotherapy, as well as practitioners in the fields of criminal justice, restorative justice and sex offender and victim trauma therapies.
210 - PublicationSexual Abuse and the Catholic ChurchThe clergy abuse situation in Ireland is often seen as unique, in part because of the close relationship between the Irish Church and the new Irish state founded in 1922. It is also thought to be unique since the Irish surnames of the Irish diaspora, some of whom are priests and bishops in the United States, Canada and Australia, have been listed in abuse cases in those countries. This has raised questions about the oppressive power of the Catholic Church in Ireland and its influence on the Irish political process. Questions have been raised about the Irish ‘culture of deference’ and how this related to the abuse situation. Some wonder if the Church and state worked separately and together in covering up the sexual abuse of Irish children. Some also wonder if ‘Irish’ Catholicism has peculiar features, which when exported throughout the world, contributed to the abuse of children by Catholic clergy. As a mono-cultural society, rendering Ireland ‘the most Catholic country in the world’ , the Catholic Church, once considered the ultimate arbiter of morality has found itself on the margins of influence in Irish public life
1466 - PublicationTwo Women's Journeys: Restorative justice after sexual violenceFor more than 40 years I have worked in the field of sexual violence, and while not exclusively so for all of this time, it has nonetheless always been there. Sexual violence in all its multidimensions has always been part of my professional life – to a greater or lesser extent – and that does not seem to want to end any time soon. From my first child sexual abuse ‘case’ as a young Irish social worker in Brixton in 1976 to issues involving sexual harassment on campus and online child exploitation, with which I am concerned today, my professional life has involved almost every aspect of sexual violence – legal, social, therapeutic, organisational, research and policy – and for most of that time from all perspectives simultaneously. The work has also involved the full 360 degrees concerning multiple parties all together: victims, perpetrators, both sets of families, criminal justice systems and professionals, media, politicians, policy makers, communities, the Catholic Church (Keenan, 2012) and more latterly the film industry (http://themeetingfilm.com/). Sexual violence in its many dimensions seems to seek me out, and it is in this context too that I also first came to work with Ivo Aertsen when he supervised a Daphne-funded research project on Integrated Approaches to Sexual Violence: the Role of Restorative Justice, led by Estelle Zinsstag and myself (Zinsstag and Keenan, 2017). In this tribute article to the work of Ivo Aertsen, we will begin by outlining Marie’s work in the area of sexual violence and illustrate developments in Marie’s thought over this time. We will conclude by offering the perspective of Ailbhe, a young woman who suffered a sexual assault and her journey towards restorative justice and getting her life back.
447 - PublicationHindsight, Foresight and Historical Judgement: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic ChurchThis chapter presents the results of a study that explored the ways in which clerics who engaged in child sexual abuse made sense of their behaviour and the response of the Church hierarchy to allegations of abuse against clergy. It is argued that a systemic perspective offers the best explanation for both the abuse and the institutional response to the problem. In particular, the findings implicate institutional factors, such as a culture of secrecy and ignorance surrounding sex and relationships, clericalism, the interplay of power and powerlessness and an overly intellectualized understanding of morality into the causative explanatory frame.
409 - Publication'Them and Us': The Clerical Child Sexual Offender as 'Other'This article investigates child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in two jurisdictions, Ireland and the United States. These jurisdictions are selected because most of the research on this topic emanates from the United States and because my own research with Catholic clergy is situated in Ireland. The article begins by taking a critical look at the dominant discourses of child sexual abuse, as these discourses form part of the context in which sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is currently understood in Ireland. Drawing on sociological and psychological perspectives as well as my own research and clinical experience the article then examines what is reliably known about Catholic clergy who have sexually abused minors and about the role or otherwise of the institution of the Catholic Church in relation to these abuses. Whilst much of the literature from the United States provides the quantitative data on the nature and scope of the problem, my research provides the qualitative picture of the lived experiences of Catholic clergy who have sexually abused minors. The article concludes by arguing that if we truly want to help children and create a safer society for all men, women and children in Ireland, then we need to get beyond a blaming stance and towards more preventative and rehabilitative/restorative perspectives.
165 - PublicationPreface: A Priesthood ImprisonedThis article reflects on my writing of Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organizational Culture in 2012 from the perspective of a researcher therapist and Fr John Ryan's writing of this book from his experience as a Catholic priest and how we arrived at the same explanation for the problem of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as a systemic problem requiring systemic solutions.
127 - PublicationTowards a better understanding of justice: concluding thoughts on restorative responses to sexual violenceSexual violence, in all its forms, is a crime for which anecdotal accounts and scholarly reports suggest victims in their great majority do not receive adequate 'justice' or redress. The theory and practice of restorative justice is rapidly developing and offers some well-argued new avenues for dealings with crime in general. It has the potential to be extended to cases of sexual violence and a number of small scale programmes are already underway across the world. Restorative Responses to Sexual Violence examines this innovative justice paradigm in more depth in the particular context of sexual trauma and violence in order to establish the empirical realities of restorative justice approaches incases of sexual violence, and considers how such approaches could be developed adequately in the future. This book is divided into two parts, each representing a key area of research and practice: theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and justice and therapeutic perspectives.This international collection brings together leading expert scholars and practitioners to offer both theoretical and practical perspectives on restorative justice and sexual violence. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of law, criminology, psychology, social science, social work and psychotherapy, as well as practitioners in the fields of criminal justice, restorative justice and sex offender and victim trauma therapies.
210 - PublicationCriminal justice, restorative justice, sexual violence and the rule of lawSexual violence, in all its forms, is a crime for which anecdotal accounts and scholarly reports suggest victims in their great majority do not receive adequate 'justice' or redress. The theory and practice of restorative justice is rapidly developing and offers some well-argued new avenues for dealings with crime in general. It has the potential to be extended to cases of sexual violence and a number of small scale programmes are already underway across the world.Restorative Responses to Sexual Violence examines this innovative justice paradigm in more depth in the particular context of sexual trauma and violence in order to establish the empirical realities of restorative justice approaches in cases of sexual violence, and considers how such approaches could be developed adequately in the future. This book is divided into two parts, each representing a key area of research and practice: theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and justice and therapeutic perspectives.This international collection brings together leading expert scholars and practitioners to offer both theoretical and practical perspectives on restorative justice and sexual violence. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of law, criminology, psychology, social science, social work and psychotherapy, as well as practitioners in the fields of criminal justice, restorative justice and sex offender and victim trauma therapies.
136 - PublicationSystemic Practice in a Complex System: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic ChurchDespite the occasional mutterings in the public press and the rare suggestion in the empirical literature, there is no evidence to suggest that Catholic clergy enter clerical and religious life with the purpose of gaining access to children to abuse them. In fact, the most comprehensive research ever carried out on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, conducted by researchers in the United States (John Jay Study, 2011), reports that whatever else formed the men’s motivation for joining, there is no evidence to suggest that gaining access to children to abuse them was part of it. My own experience confirmed this. The more I met with the clerical men who had abused, the more intrigued I became. Put simply, I was not in the presence of "monsters", nor was I in the presence of individuals who had an "illness". I began to think there must be more to this problem - situational, organizational and institutional - that must also be considered.
305 - PublicationChild Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: A Multilayered PerspectiveChild sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is a multi-layered, multifaceted problem that needs to be understood and addressed in all its complexity. Approaches that focus only on individual actors without taking sufficient account of structural and systemic considerations not alone marginalise individuals but fail in the ultimate aim of prevention, healing and repair.
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