How an entry gets on file.

Sourcing standard

Sources are ranked: primary documents first (court judgments, grand-jury reports, official inquiries, ecclesiastical proceedings, statutory records), then peer-reviewed historical scholarship, then recognised news of record (the Boston Globe, the Times, BBC, Reuters, etc.). Encyclopedic references are used to locate primary sources, not as standalone authority.

Each entry carries a numbered Sources block at the bottom. Where a claim is contested in the underlying scholarship — death tolls in inquisitions, the scope of historical episodes, the boundaries of a cover-up — the entry flags it in the prose rather than picking the convenient figure silently.

Verification classification

Each entry carries one of four status labels at the top:

• Verified. Anchored in primary documents or multiple independent authoritative sources. No serious challenge to the institutional record.
• Partial verification. The core institutional record is anchored; specific claims (scale, motive, secondary actors) are not fully independently confirmed.
• Contested. The institutional fact of the episode is on the record, but its scope, scale, or attribution is in active dispute among authoritative sources. The entry flags the dispute.
• Unverified. Entry exists in the file but has not yet completed independent verification. Not published in the public index until status is upgraded.

What is in scope

• Sexual abuse and institutional cover-up. Where there is an inquiry, a grand-jury report, a criminal proceeding, or a recognised investigative-journalism record.
• Financial fraud. Federal indictments, civil judgments, regulatory findings, prosperity-gospel scandals with court records.
• Institutional abuse. Orphanage, residential-school, asylum, and laundry abuse, anchored in formal inquiries.
• Historical violence. Inquisitions, crusades, witch trials, and persecutions, anchored in tribunal records and peer-reviewed history.
• Doctrinal suppression. Censure of scientific or scholarly inquiry, anchored in surviving documentary record.

What is out of scope

• Theological disputes between traditions.
• Present-day polemics on questions of faith or practice.
• Allegations not anchored in court documents, official reports, or peer-reviewed scholarship.
• Diagnostic or moral claims about specific named living persons beyond what is in the public record of the episode.

Editorial posture

No denomination is exempt and none is singled out. The weighting of entries follows the weight of the documentary record of each episode. The site does not host comments, a forum, user contributions, or anonymous tips.

This is a reference. It is not a substitute for legal advice, pastoral care, or trauma support. If you are a survivor, the appropriate resources are not on this site; they are with qualified professionals and trusted organisations in your jurisdiction.