What percentage of priests abuse
and whom do they victimize? Part 1
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Overview:
Sexual abuse of youths and children in the U.S. by Roman Catholic priests has been quietly
discussed for decades. A series of books on the topic was published
starting during the 1990s, and continuing today. But it was only in early 2002 that a moral panic surfaced, alleging
widespread child and youth sexual abuse by priests. The little data that is available seems to indicate that
the abusers represent a very small percentage of the total priesthood. Further,
very few of those priests who do abuse are actually pedophiles, as
the media often reports. Rather they are ephebophiles -- adult priests
with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, and who are also sexually attracted to post-pubertal males.
Their victims are typically older teenage males who are
under the age of 18.
It is important to keep in mind that the vast majority of priests, with a
heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual orientation, do not molest or sexually
abuse young people.
What the media often reports, compared with reality:
During the first few months of 2002, revelations of pedophilia, and ephebophilia among some priests in the Roman Catholic
church spread like wildfire across the U.S. The media gave the impression that:
Claim: Most of the abusing priests are/were pedophiles -- molesting little
children.
Probable reality: most of the criminal acts were by ephebophiles -- adults engaging
in sexual activity with post-pubertal, 13 to 17 year old teenagers.
Claim: A large percentage of priests abuse children.
Probable reality: The vast majority of Roman Catholic clergy are
celibate. A few are married, having entered the Catholic priesthood after having been ordained in another Christian group. S avery few are discretely engaged in sexual behavior with other single adults.
There is general agreement that only a few percentage of
the clergy actually abuse children sexually. The U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops released a
national study in 2004-FEB. It concluded that about 4% of all
U.S. priests since 1950 have been accused of sexual abuse of
children. However:
There are probably many victims who have remained silent and
not come forward to accuse their abuser(s).
There are probably some adults who have come forward to
accuse priests, who have false recovered memories of abuse that
never happened.
There may be some adults who knowingly falsely accuse
innocent priests of abuse in order to collect compensation.
An accurate estimate will probably never be known.
Claim: A massive amount of abuse is now going on in the Roman Catholic
church.
Probable reality: The data that appears in the media often reflects allegations of
abuse which have accumulated over the past forty years. The number of
cases involving allegations of recent abuse is and will continue to be a small fraction of the total
that is now being reported.
Claim: Priests abuse at a per-capita rate that is much greater than for the
general population.
Probable reality: This is probably true, even if for no other reason that all Roman
Catholic priests
are currently male, and adult males have a much higher abuse rate than females. The Roman Catholic Church, The Southern Baptist Convention, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the main Mormon denomination), and many conservative wings of Christianity and other religions have sexist policies that discriminate against female leaders.
Claim: The percentage of Roman Catholic priests who abuse children and
youths is much greater than for other Christian and non-Christian
religious leaders (gurus, imams, ministers, pastors, priests, priestesses,
rabbis, etc.).
Probable reality: This may or may not be true. No reliable data exists that we have been able to find. Even as media
articles in the first few months of 2002 highlighted abuse by priests
within the Catholic Church, a former Episcopal priest was convicted of
molesting a 14-year-old boy, a Baptist pastor from South Carolina was
starting a 60 year prison center for molesting 23 children, another
Baptist pastor was dismissed from his church in upstate New York over
allegations of abuse, a pastor in DeKalb, GA, was found guilty of 25
charges of molestation of a male teen-aged church member, and an
Orthodox rabbi was about to go on trial for groping two teenage girls.
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What percentage of Roman Catholic priests abuse older teens and occasionally young children?
Nobody really knows.
Nobody even knows how many adults in general sexually
abuse youth and adults. A figure of 2% is often mentioned. However this is
really just a guess.
Frederick S. Berlin is the director of the National
Institute for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Trauma, and a
widely published author on sexual disorders. He stated in an interview: "There
is no good data either from the general population or from the priesthood about
numbers of pedophiles or people who have a vulnerability that increases their
risk to children. The issue of sexuality, particularly of people who may have
unusual kinds of sexual cravings, has been one that society has tended to sweep
under the carpet. Getting that data is terribly important, but as of now I know
of no systematic surveys that would allow us to come to any firm conclusions." 1
The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a priest and canonical lawyer said
that "The bishops have resisted attempts to do studies on this, and the
Vatican is death on any empirical, scientific study on the celibacy or sexuality
of the priesthood." 2
The Rev. Stephen Rossetti, is a
priest and psychologist who has specialized in this area. He has suggested that
the records of church counseling centers would contain a great deal of
information that would help shine light on abuse by priests. Centers such as St.
Luke's Institute in Silver Spring MD; St. Michael's Paraclete Center outside St.
Louis, MO; St. John Vianney Center in Downingtown, PA.; the Institute of Living
in Hartford, CT; and Southdown Hospital near Toronto, ON Canada treat hundreds of
priests for various psychological problems. However, the church has refused to
conduct such a study. 3
Rev. James J. Gill is a Jesuit priest and psychiatrist who heads the Christian Institute for the Study of Human Sexuality in Chicago, IL. He
said: "When the question comes up, should we do a study of priests and how
many offenders have there been, what was the nature of the offense, what was
their training, who were the victims, what treatment did the offenders get, what
was the rate of recidivism -- it's all researchable, but the bishops fear you
keep the issue alive by doing the research. They fear that the press will get
hold of it and come to them and say, 'How many were there in your diocese?' They
just don't want to get into that." A complicating factor is that each
diocese operates independently of the rest of the Church in the U.S., and
reports directly to the Vatican. 3
Some estimates on the percent of abusers:
Philip Jenkins, is a professor of history and religious studies at
Penn State University, and has written a book on the topic. 4 He estimates that 2% of priests sexually abuse youths and children. 5
Richard Sipe is a psychotherapist and former priest, who has studied
celibacy and sexuality in the priesthood for four decades. He has authored
three books on the topic. 6 By extrapolating from his 25
years of interviews of 1,500 priests and others, he estimates that 6%
of priests abuse. 4% of priests abuse teens, aged 13 to 17; 2% abuse pre-pubertal
children. 5
Sylvia M. Demarest, a lawyer from Texas has been tracking accusations
against priests since the the mid-1990s. By 1996, she had identified 1,100
priests who had been accused of molesting children. She predicts that when she updates
the list, the total will exceed 1,500 names. This represents about 2.5% of the approximately 60,000 men who have been active
priests in the U.S. since 1984. It is important to realize that these are
accused priests; the allegations have not been evaluated in a trial. Also, there
is no way to judge what proportion of actual abusive priests are included on her list. It
may include 40% or fewer; she may have found 90% or more.
Conservative columnist Ann Coulter claimed,
without citing references, that there are only 55 "exposed abusers" in
a population of 45,000 priests. This is an abuse rate of 0.12%. 7
Various news services reported that 200 Roman Catholic priests in the
Philippines have been investigated for "sexual misconduct and abuses"
over the past two decades. That would represent almost 3% of the
total population of about 7,000 priests. However, it appears that
misconduct includes many offenses, from child abuse to rape to keeping
adult mistresses. 8
A survey of child and youth sexual abuse
within the church issued in 2004-FEB estimates that 4% of the
110,000 priests who served between 1950 and 2002 were abusive. More details.
It is important to keep one's eye on the forest and not on the trees.
Even
if, as one researcher estimates, six percent of priests sexually abuse older teens or
children, then that still leaves an average of almost 19 priests out of every 20
who are non-abusive.
Studies of sexual abuse of minors reveals that, over their lifetime, one adult pedophile, hebephile or ephebophile typically abuses many dozens of minors. So the number of victims is massive compared to the number of abusing priests.
The previous policy within the Church was to transfer abusive priests who have been accused to an unsuspecting different diocese where he has a new group of older teens and young children to groom and abuse.
Alan Cooperman, "Abuse Problem Is Clouded by A Lack of Data:
Opinion Split on Whether Molestation Is More Prevalent in Catholic Clergy,"
Washington Post, 2002-MAR-10, at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Alan Cooperman, "Sex abuse in clergy stymies scientists Lack of
data thwarts efforts to gauge depth of the problem," Washington Post,
2002-MAR-24, at: http://detnews.com/2002/religion/
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