(I’m recycling this comment from a thread on Being Frank.)
The John Jay supplementary report on the sex abuse crisis in the United States has statistics that shed some light on the frequent argument between those who blame the crisis on paedophilia and those who blame it on homosexuality. Basically, the evidence does not support either claim.
For many of the more than 50% of priests with a single victim – most of the victims were over 11 at the time of first abuse, nearly half the male victims and over a third of the female victims were over 15.
31% of all abusers abused for less than one year. These were mainly single victim abusers.
Male victims made up two thirds of those abused by priests with single victims, so homosexuality is at least implied in a sixth of the total number of abusers (those with single male victims over 15).
The report isolated four sub-groups from among those with two or more victims:
- High-rate Abusers: (the 10+ and 20+ groups) – defined by counts of reported and possible victims. These groups count 152 and 39 priests, respectively.
- Paedophiles: Priests with two or more reported victims, either male or female, but none over age 10 at time incident began. This grouping counts 96 individual priests. It is hypothesized that paedophiles are aroused by the physical form of a child, irrespective of the child’s gender.
- Ephebophiles: Priests with two or more reported male victims, but all at least age 13 at the time of the start of the incident. This grouping counts 474 priests. It has been suggested that ephebophiles are distinct from paedophiles because they are aroused by the bodies of boys who have developed secondary sexual characteristics.
- Unusual acts group: The Victim Surveys recorded descriptions of unusual or exceptional behaviors and paraphilias for a small number of priests. This grouping counts 143 priests.
The report doesn’t specify whether the remaining 800 2 or more victim abusers preyed only on 11 and 12 year olds, on girls older than 13, or indiscriminately across ages and genders
The report states that many abusers are primarily attracted to age mates, but regress to child adult relationships when under stress. They tend not to be attracted to a particular age or gender, but abuse whoever they have access to.
So the accusation of paedophilia is – technically at least – incorrect. 96 in total, making less than a quarter of 1% (if my arithmetic is correct). And the common claim that the real problem was homosexuality can also not be maintained in the light of the facts. Ephobophilic homosexuality is possibly to be suspected in 25% of the cases if you include both single and multiple victim abusers.
The link between ephobophilia and homosexuality is frequently denied, but I find it hard to square these denials with concerted efforts by gay lobbies to get the age of consent lowered and organisations like the North American Man Boy Love Association. I guess it would be fair to say that there is an ephobophiliac element in the homosexual community just as there is in the heterosexual community.
I am currently in a “discussion” with a person who claims that the incidence of abusers among the Catholic Clergy is from 6% to 20%. This discussion is taking place on-line. The person, male I think, does not, will not state clearly how this “range” was calculated or exactly from where the figures come. His central point is that the incidence of abusers among the Catholic Clergy is much higher than in the general community. Wading through the statistics is both time-consuming and sometimes confusing. Can you point me to some authoritaitive sources which could provide a valid comparison between the incidence of abusers with the Catholic Clergy and the incidence of abusers in the general community?
Thanking You,
Mark Davidson
Mark, I’ve seen something that I think might help. I’ve just arrived at work, and won’t get a chance to look for it until this evening my time – about 10 hours from now – but I’ll post it when I find it.
Mark, I got partway through typing you a reply and lost it. Here’s one reference: http://www.cesnur.org/2010/mi_preti_pedofili_en.html
“According to studies by Jenkins (see his Pedophiles and Priests, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 50 and 81) and others, if one compares the Catholic Church in the United States to the major Protestant denominations, one discovers that convictions of pedophiles – depending on the denominations – are higher for Protestant pastors compared to Catholic priests. The question is important because it demonstrates that the problem is not celibacy. Most of the Protestant pastors are married.
In the same period in which about 100 American priests were convicted for sexually abusing minors, the number of gym teachers and coaches of junior sporting teams – also mainly married – who were convicted of the same crimes in the US reached about 6,000 (see Michael Dobie, “Violation of Trust; When Young Athletes Are Sex-Abuse Victims, Their Coaches Are Often the Culprits,” Newsday, June 9, 2002, p. C25). The examples could continue, not only in the US. And above all, according to regular US government reports, two-thirds of sexual abuse against minors does not come from strangers or educators – including priests and Protestant pastors – but from family members: stepfathers, uncles, cousins, brothers and, unfortunately, even parents. Similar facts exist for numerous other countries.”
There was a big fuss about New York schools a year or two ago. The claim was that as many as 15% of teachers were abusers. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/nyregion/28about.html?_r=1
And this site had some interesting statistics: http://ezfame.com/tag/pedophiles/