This 4 page paper responds to the question: Do the actions of the Church in covering up child sexual abuse by priests reflect organized crime or corporate crime? The writer begins by defining criminal enterprise, organized crime and corporate crimes. The writer then presents the available data on the incidence of child abuse by priests. The writer comments on child abuse by members of other organizations but points to the power of the Church to cover it up more successfully. The writer then presents and answer to the question and justification for that conclusion. Data included. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: MM12_PGprsts.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
These organizations often engage in multiple criminal activities and have extensive supporting networks" (FBI, 2005). The FBI defines organized crime as: any group having some manner of a formalized
structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities. Such groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened violence, corrupt public officials, graft, or
extortion, and generally have a significant impact on the people in their locales, region, or the country as a whole (FBI, 2005). Corporate Crime has any number of definitions but
is usually associated with what is called "white collar crime." The most common definition is "Acts committed by companies to increase profits" (RevisionNotes, n.d.). Sometimes the victims are difficult to
identify in corporate crimes (RevisionNotes, n.d.). Nonetheless, harm is done to persons as well as to the society (RevisionNotes, n.d.). Revising these definitions, the actions of the Roman Catholic
Church relative to child sexual abuse by priests would fit most accurately under the umbrella of a criminal enterprise. Both organized crime and corporate crimes are for the purpose of
obtaining money illegally. A criminal enterprise, on the other hand, is one that engages in crimes and has the network to protect the criminals. The Roman Catholic Church
is both a government (via the Vatican) and an organization, it is a church. The data are astounding. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice was hired by the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops to review Catholic church records for data on abusive clergy (Robinson, 2004). The survey was on component of a plan by bishops to respond to the
allegations of child abuse by priests and the cover-up by the church (Robinson, 2004). Raw data from the survey, which covered the years between 1950 and 2002: * 11,000 allegations