Another Perspective On Clergy Abuse You Won't Hear About
Dr. Thomas Plante:(Professor of Psychology at Santa Clara University)
"First, the available research (which is quite good now) suggests that approximately 4% of priests during the past half century (and mostly in the 1960s and 1970s) have had a sexual experience with a minor (i.e., anyone under the age of 18). There are approximately 60,000 active and inactive priests and brothers in the United States and thus we estimate that between 1,000 and 3,000 priests have sexually engaged with minors. That's a lot. In fact, that is 3,000 people too many. Any sexual abuse of minors whether perpetrated by priests, other clergy, parents, school teachers, boy-scout leaders or anyone else in whom we entrust our children is horrific. However, although good data is hard to acquire, it appears that this 4% figure is consistent with male clergy from other religious traditions and is significantly lower than the general adult male population that is best estimated to be closer to 8%. Therefore, the odds that any random Catholic priest would sexually abuse a minor are not likely to be significantly higher than other males in or out of the clergy."
Read the whole article here
"First, the available research (which is quite good now) suggests that approximately 4% of priests during the past half century (and mostly in the 1960s and 1970s) have had a sexual experience with a minor (i.e., anyone under the age of 18). There are approximately 60,000 active and inactive priests and brothers in the United States and thus we estimate that between 1,000 and 3,000 priests have sexually engaged with minors. That's a lot. In fact, that is 3,000 people too many. Any sexual abuse of minors whether perpetrated by priests, other clergy, parents, school teachers, boy-scout leaders or anyone else in whom we entrust our children is horrific. However, although good data is hard to acquire, it appears that this 4% figure is consistent with male clergy from other religious traditions and is significantly lower than the general adult male population that is best estimated to be closer to 8%. Therefore, the odds that any random Catholic priest would sexually abuse a minor are not likely to be significantly higher than other males in or out of the clergy."
Read the whole article here
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 10:49 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Russ!
One thing we should be careful to point out is that this is old news and does not reflect the current situation.
In 2008-2009 there were exactly 6 credible allegations made against 40,000 active priests plus tens of thousands of others working for the Church.
This is hugely better than everyone else. Contrary to the mainstream media's whipped-up frenzy that exposing your children to the Catholic Church almost guarantees they will be attacked by a paedophile priest, it is in reality about the safest place they could be.
thanks George for that important clarification!
Our kids are much safer in Church than in the schools, but no one is printing that story.
God bless
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