----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 4:19 PM Subject: Re: The gospel according to Jimmy Breslin
> On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 04:02:03PM -0500, Dan Minette wrote: > > > Lets look at the number of 100k abused children. A boy has about a > > 1 in 6 chance of experiencing sexual abuse; a girl about 1 in 4 to 1 > > in 5. Assuming that we are just talking about abuse of boys, with > > Catholics about 25% of the population of the US, and boys during that > > time period now being males from 6-50, we have about 90 million or > > so males, about 22.5 million catholic males, and about 3.75 million > > who were sexually abused. This means that his number, taken at face > > value, indicates that about 2.6% of sexual abuse of Catholic boys is > > by priests. > > That is a amazingly UNilluminating way of looking at it. > Do you know what the percentages are for children being sexually abused > by someone who is NOT a member of the child's household? Real good numbers are hard to come by. Sampling bias is very hard to overcome. Nonetheless, the number of victims per pedophile indicates (often quoted between 10-20) indicates that most boys are not abused by someone in the household. > If I were a parent, I would make damn sure no one in my household was > abusing my children. Then the question becomes, how much does the > probability of sexual abuse go up by exposing my child to a Catholic > priest? The best answer to that is that the Catholic church needs to have the same type of rules for contact with children and youth that other organizations have adopted: like always having at least two adults in the room with the child. > Another illuminating comparison would be the abuse rates by public > school teachers vs. Catholic priests. Sure, but those numbers are not available. Its a field where estimates of the overall rate can vary by a factor of two. Trying to compare smaller subsets (like teachers and priests) is virtually impossible at the moment. Only general conclusions can be made from applying the numbers we have. The real answer for parents is to teach their children about abuse and to require that those institutions which are trusted with one's children to have good child safety policies. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
