Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Christian institutions & contexts Jehovah's Witnesses England and Wales, United Kingdom · 2021

IICSA: Jehovah's Witness elders discouraged reporting, substituting internal discipline

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

congregational elders administering internal judicial processes

Organization

Jehovah's Witnesses (Britain)

Spiritual nexus

Elders' religious authority governed whether abuse ever left the congregation — the same structural finding Australia's Royal Commission made, here in UK form.

  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2021-09-01 · statutory inquiry report (38 religious settings)

    Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), United Kingdom. In its report on child protection in religious organisations and settings, IICSA found that Jehovah's Witness elders discouraged victims and families from reporting abuse to police and used internal 'disfellowshipping' discipline instead of safeguarding referral, leaving children under congregational authority without external recourse.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • discouragement of reports to police
  • disfellowshipping discipline in place of safeguarding referral

Primary record

Sources

official statutory inquiry report inquiry report IICSA, 'Child Protection in Religious Organisations and Settings Investigation Report' (Sept. 2021).

The inquiry's findings on reporting suppression among the groups examined.

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