A Scoping Review of Institutional Betrayal
In 2008 I started presenting the idea of institutional betrayal in lectures I was giving to various academic audiences. It was an idea that I presented in the context of my work on betrayal trauma theory. Several years later Carly Smith and I published two articles about institutional betrayal, one reporting on research and the other outlining the concept. Since then, work on institutional betrayal has taken off – no only in my lab but in many other labs too. That is one reason why at Courage we started a project of tracking research on institutional betrayal and institutional courage.
For similar reasons a group of researchers from the laboratory of Senior Advisor Professor Anne DePrince, has recently published an important new peer-reviewed article titled: When institutions harm those who depend on them: A scoping review of institutional betrayal.
As DePrince noted in a recent Psychology Today post about this new review:
As a trauma researcher, I find that there’s a lot that’s important in this review—and a lot that is discouraging. For example, across studies with survivors of interpersonal trauma, institutional betrayal was common and linked with harm. This means that many survivors bear the costs of more than the original violence. They also bear the costs of institutional action and inaction.
In that discouraging picture, though, is a path forward. If institutions have the power to add to the harm of interpersonal trauma, they also have the power to play a role in healing. In the words of Dr. Freyd, they can show institutional courage.
The scoping review included articles published through 2022. Since then many more articles about institutional betrayal and courage have been published. But so many questions remain unanswered. Thus, I end with this reminder: The 2024 Institutional Courage Grant is open for applications. This grant is an opportunity for researchers interested in investigating institutional courage and institutional betrayal. The deadline for applications is April 1, 2024. More at: https://www.institutionalcourage.org/research-grant-program
Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage