The topic of pastoral misconduct is painful enough without the additional fact that most of them get away with it. Andy Shupe has done an exceptional service to academics and to lay people by outlining scores of cases and showing in some detail how they were handled (or mishandled). Like so many other researchers (myself included), he believes there is a tendency for religious institutions to want to cover up misconduct. Sadly, leaders use key Christian concepts such as reconciliation and forgiveness as mechanisms to avoid dealing with renegades. Shupe outlines three forms of institutional structures (hierarchical, pyramidal, and congregational) and suggests that each has a distinctive dynamic. I learned quite a bit from this book

A review of this poor piece of work can be found on the SHIELDS web site

The work is a highly prejudiced and uninformed effort. It will not lead the reader to correctly understand the LDS Church.