Disclosing Sexual Abuse in Religious Communities in Israel: Lessons Learned by the Research Group on Child Sexual Abuse

The complexity of the disclosure of sexual abuse has been widely presented in the empirical literature. However, there are still many layers which need to be examined thoroughly. The purpose of this chapter is to share some unique approaches to disclosure in the context of religious communities in Israel. This plays a major role in our research and field experience as a research group including lecturers, doctoral and masters students, and field workers, all involved in child sexual abuse research and treatment, aiming to advance unique knowledge of the complexity of child sexual abuse phenomena. The chapter deals with several aspects of disclosure: the disclosure of the abuse story; the important role of the parents in the process; the process of disclosure that takes place between the researcher and the research participants; the meaning of social and personal child sexual abuse disclosure online and the public social dimensions of the story of disclosure, emphasized by the story of child sexual abuse within a religious cult. All of these aspects become nuanced and at times are even more complicated in cases of closed religious societies.