When an allegation of abuse surfaces, church leaders often face immediate confusion. Should you wait for the police to finish before taking action? Does filing a report satisfy your duty to the church body? If civil authorities close a case without filing charges, does that mean the church’s work is done?

During an independent church abuse investigation, investigators establish the scope, collect records, conduct voluntary interviews, evaluate the evidence, examine the institution’s response, and prepare findings and recommendations.

When an allegation of abuse comes to light, leaders naturally focus on the Alleged Offender, gathering facts, weighing conflicting accounts, examining evidence, and ensuring a fair process. That focus is essential for immediate safety and administrative decisions, but stopping there leaves some of the most critical institutional questions unanswered.

A credible church abuse investigation is structurally independent, aligned with truth, trauma-informed, and grounded in objective evidence evaluation. Investigators must be free to follow relevant evidence, examine institutional causes, coordinate responsibly with civil authorities, and report their findings without institutional control.

Report distribution is a foundational structural element of an investigation. Decisions about who receives the report must be established in writing before anyone knows what the investigation will uncover.

When there is no justice, how can you care for yourself and for others? For many of the survivors we speak with, when abuse is not responded to well within faith communities there is additional spiritual and relational pain, trauma, and confusion layered upon the trauma from the initial abuse.

The #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements are a sobering and painful reminder that a dark winter exists inside the Church—a community that claims to follow the One who is the Light of the world.

Neil Jaffee describes and advocates for a set of specialized practices that will revolutionize our approach to the handling of child sexual abuse cases in the criminal justice system .

Boz Tchividjian examines one of our treasured legal principles and how, improperly applied, can be used to great harm by predators and abuse enablers.

A Proposal for a Federal International Mandated Reporting Law

A disturbingly common legal maneuver is utilized by attorneys across the United States which ends up discouraging victims from coming forward, David Clohessy explains.

Too often attitudes on foreign policy are imbued with ethnocentric undertones. We rightly mourn the loss of life in the womb and the death of U.S. soldiers, but often we are not moved by the massive collateral damage of war overseas.

Re-examining the value of human life—at all stages.