Fast Facts
1. There has never been any evidence that Catholic priests have offended more than those of other denominations or those of other large organizations.
Newsweek magazine, April 7, 2010:
“[E]xperts who study child abuse say they see little reason to conclude that sexual abuse is mostly a Catholic issue. ‘We don’t see the Catholic Church as a hotbed of this or a place that has a bigger problem than anyone else,’ said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children …
“Since the mid-1980s, insurance companies have offered sexual misconduct coverage as a rider on liability insurance, and their own studies indicate that Catholic churches are not higher risk than other congregations. Insurance companies that cover all denominations … do not charge Catholic churches higher premiums. ‘We don’t see vast difference in the incidence rate between one denomination and another,’ says [a large insurance company VP]. ‘It’s pretty even across the denominations.’ It's been that way for decades.”
“If anyone believes that priests offend at a higher rate than teachers or non-celibate clergy, then they should produce the evidence on which they are basing that conclusion. I know of none. Saying ‘everybody knows’ does not constitute scientific methodology.”
- Humanities professor Dr. Philip Jenkins, Pennsylvania State University.
2. There is no evidence that the Catholic Church was alone in its practice of not calling the police to report suspected abuse.
A 2004 study commissioned by the Department of Education examined cases of child abuse by public school teachers in New York in the early 1990’s:
“In an early [1994] study of 225 cases of educator sexual abuse in New York, all of the accused had admitted to sexual abuse of a student but none of the abusers was reported to authorities.”
That is an important and alarming fact. Here’s a visual of that startling statistic:
Number of abusive educators: 225
Number reported to police: 0
So, in other words, as recently as 1994, it was the universal practice in New York among school administrators not to call police to report abusers.
The same cited 1994 study also reported that only 1 percent of those abusive educators lost their license. In addition, most amazingly, “25 percent received no consequence or were reprimanded informally and off-the-record. Nearly 39 percent chose to leave the district, most with positive recommendations or even retirement packages intact.”
Cover-up? Absolutely.
3. Irish conference info about old laws
4. Schiltz paper? Articles?
