Along with the personal reasons, there can have some situational stressors and social factors behind child sexual abuse offences by clerics. These situational stressors do not cause abuse but serve as ‘triggers’.
Shifting from one place to another–initially from family to seminary, seminary to parish and one parish to another–is a general fact in the life of a priest. It can cause various emotional conflicts among them; like separation anxiety, fear about future and other insecurity feelings. Being in a remote parish or being at a distance from one’s own family may intensify the feelings of loneliness. Emotional competence to cope up with these demands of life is a big challenge for clerics. Moreover, due to excessive workload and the insufficient number of priests, some find little time for self-care. Some develop unhealthy habits of overeating, overworking, alcoholism or sexual misconduct to deal with these stressors (John Jay College Research Team, 2011, pp. 70–71). Alcoholism or substance abuse is one of the common correlates of child sexual abuse among priest and non-priest abusers (John Jay College Research Team, 2011, p. 48). Alcohol could decrease internal inhibitions to engage in an abusive act (Finkelhor, 1999, p. 106).
Clericalism is one of the social factors that indirectly favours clerical child sexual abuse. Based on their powers as sacramental ministers, there is a radical misunderstanding of the position of clerics as an elite group within the Church, superior to laity, which can be called clericalism. It has a profound emotional and psychological influence on victims, Church leadership and secular society. It creates a lot of pressure on victims to remain silent about abuses for years and prevents society in general from accepting or doubting disclosures (Doyle, 2006, pp. 189–190). The culture of clericalism has prompted Bishops to cover up child sexual abuse cases involving clergy with the intention of protecting the good image of their brother priests. Every cover-up has indirectly helped the offender to continue his abusive activities (Parkinson, 2013, p. 21).