and the assumption of authority by leaders on the basis of religious belief and practice. There is no rational reason to trust such figures or to give them such authority, be they rabbi, priest, imam or guru, except to assume that their training (if any) will have weeded out the abusive or that, in the few cases where such mechanisms exist, a superior will act to report and remove the criminal. Unfortunately we know that the training does not do such weeding and, in the religions where there are command structures, those with that responsibility are reluctant to even acknowledge the problem.
There is even a case to be made that religions approve such behaviour. Physical abuse of children is receives the deity's stamp of approval in the Bible, the Koran, the Haddith and the Torah; man/girl rape can be excused in all those texts; man/boy rape is rationalised by the prohibition (biblically) being against man "lying" with man. Add in the layers of customary law that have attached to such faiths and you are left with a hodge-podge where religious leaders can do nearly anything without question or fear of reprisal.
Contrast social workers or the police or medical practitioners or teachers; in all cases not only are there specific management structures but also there are professional bodies, and statutory oversight mechanisms. Even these systems fail at times but there is a far greater chance that the deliberately abusive will be stopped by them before massive damage occurs.
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