Utrecht University news, “Discontent among part of Jehovah's Witnesses about internal handling of abuse complaints”
“751 participants shared their experiences”
Through a contact point set up by the university. Of respondents, about 80% had reported to elders and 27% had filed a police report; 75% were dissatisfied with the internal handling (average score 3.3/10) against 6.4/10 for the police. The team, led by Professor Kees van den Bos, recommended an internal reporting centre with trained staff, elder training, annual reporting and consideration of mandatory reporting; it stressed the findings are not claimed to be fully representative.
Official source (opens in new tab)
Provenance and verification note for Utrecht University news, Discontent among part of Jehovah's Witnesses about internal handling of abuse complaints
Confidence note. Page opened; figures confirmed.
Corroborated by. src-wodc-2020-0123-utrecht-report, src-dutchnews-2020-0805-report-stays-online
Notes. DutchNews (5 Aug 2020) gives the split as 292 reporting their own abuse and 459 reporting someone else's.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-uu-2020-0123-news-release