ESTIMATES OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Figure 1
National Child Sexual Abuse Rate, 1992-2001

OVERVIEW
250

0

The estimation of any form of deviance in the general population is a very difficult task . It is impossible to assess the extent of sexual offending, either ingeneral or with children as targets . Most estimatesof the distribution of sexual offenders in the general
population are derived from forensic sources, thatis, samples of those who are arrested or convicted
for sex offenses . All researchers acknowledge thatthose who are arrested represent only a fraction of
all sexual offenders . Sexual crimes have the lowest
rates of reporting for all crimes . Not all potential
participants in such studies can be known or contacted, not all would use the same language todescribe their experiences, and not all are willing toshare information . The sexual abuse of children by
Catholic priests and deacons is part of the larger
problem of sexual abuse of children in the UnitedStates . This chapter is a summary of the estimatesof child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as wellas the general population .

200

350

S
a 100
50

0
1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1993

3999

2000

2001

It is important to note that social service agencies
and criminal justice institutions each only capture
part of the picture . Incidents or events involving thesexual abuse of children may be reported directly tothe police and/or may come to the attention of thestaff of social service agencies . It is important toacknowledge that many such incidents may not
generate any official report at all .

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL SERVICE
ESTIMATES OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSEAs a part of the work on the Study, state-level criminal justice data on the prevalence of child sexual
abuse were sought from all SO states and theDistrict of Columbia . The agencies were asked for:1) the number of offenders arrested for sex crimes
against children for a series of years, 2) the numberof child victims of sexual assault or abuse, 3) demographic information for both offenders and victims,
and 4) conviction rates of those offenders arrested
for child sexual abuse/assault . Of 49 states, only 13
had criminal justice system data available . Thosestates that have implemented the National IncidentBased Reporting System (NIBRS), which collects
crime information at the incident level and includes
victim age, were able to provide the requested data,
if only for the most recent year . NIBRS collects dataon the following types of sex crimes : forcible rape,
forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object,forcible fondling, incest and statutory rape .

Child sexual abuse data has been collected annually
since 1992 through the National Child Abuse andNeglect Data System (NCANDS) of the Federal
Department of Health and Human Services . These
data are based on incident-level reports gatheredfrom state child protective services and agencies andare published in an annual report . The publication
Child Maltreatment, which is released annually,
reports incident-based allegations per state alongwith census-based estimates of the population ofchildren younger than 18 . Child sexual abuse isdefined as "maltreatment that involves the child insexual activity to provide sexual gratification or
financial benefit to the perpetrator" (Child
Maltreatment, 2001) . Child maltreatment reports
show a decline in reported incidents from 1992 to2001 for all reporting states . Figure 1 shows the incident data expressed as a rate per 100,000 children.
Figure 2 shows the percent of the total child population who have been victims of child sexual abuse .

154

Delaware's criminal justice datareported 510 child victims of sexual assault
crimes in 1995, for a rate of 285 per 100,000
children . This data was taken from a report
requested by the Attorney General's Task Forceon Child Victims and includes all known incidents of sexual assault against children where anarrest occurred . In contrast, the NCANDS reportfor 1995 shows only 200 incidents, for a rate of
112 per 100,000 children .
DELAWARE

Figure 2
Child Victims of Sexual Abuse as a
Percentage of Child Population, 1992-2001
9.n%

Y

0 .30%

015%

0.10%
t

CALIFORNIA A total of 13,075 offenders wereconvicted of sex crimes against children in thestate of California for the year 2001, for a rate of
141 sexual abuse convictions per 100,000 children . The NCANDS rate for the same year is
112 sexual abuse incidents per 100,000 children .

u
1994

1995

1996

1997

1999

1999

7W0

7001

In the summaries below, this criminal justice datafrom NIBRS is compared to the NCANDS data .
These comparisons generally show that state criminal justice systems are reporting considerably more
incidents of sexual abuse than the social service
agencies . The decline shown in the charts on theprevious page may therefore be a result of a change
in the patterns of response by victims' families, withmore incidents now being reported to the police .

IDAHO NIBRS data shows that in 2001 there
were 1,363 victims of child sexual abuse known
to the state criminal justice system, for a rate of
363 victims per 100,000 children . The NCANDS
rate is much smaller -295 known child victims,
for a rate of 79 per 100,000 children .
IOWA The NIBRS data set for Iowa shows thatin 2001 there were 1,454 child victims of sex
crimes, for a rate of 198 victims per 100,000
children . The NCANDS data reports 1,031 victims, or a rate of 141 incidents per 100,000 children.

It should be noted that some discrepancies were
found between the NCANDS data and the dataobtained from the state social service agency for thesame year. One explanation for this may be due tothe fact that NCANDS collects data from a calendar year period and some state agencies collect datafrom a fiscal year period when publishing their own
reports. Additionally, some data - such as that from
California - are taken from the Offender BasedTransaction Statistics System where only those
offenders who have received a "final disposition"
are included ; therefore, these numbers may be substantially smaller than a count of arrests for childsexual abuse would be .

MICHIGAN Michigan's NIBRS data set indicates a total of 1,812 rape victims who were
infants or children up to age 14, and another
1,269 rape victims who were children between
15 and 19 years old . In contrast, the 2001
NCANDS data reported 1,656 incidents of sexual abuse on children 19 and under .
South Carolina's NIBRS
data indicates that in 2000 there were 2,438
child victims (infants to children 16 years old) of
forcible sex crimes . The NCANDS data reports
610 incidents of child sexual abuse in 2002 .
SOUTH CAROLINA

ALABAMA There were 632 child rapes reported
to the Alabama state criminal justice agency in
2001, for a reported rate of 56 per 100,000 children . The NCANDS rate for all incidents ofabuse is 174 per 100,000 children .

SOUTH DAKOTA In South Dakota, the NIBRS

data set shows 131 child victims of crimes fromrape to forcible fondling, while the NCANDS
data shows 169 incidents of child sexual abuse .

1 55

TENNESSEE•The NIBRS system for Tennessee

12 .8% of the females and 4 .3% of the males
reported a history of sexual abuse during child-reports 3,488 child victims of crimes of sexual

hood (MacMillan et al ., 1997) .

abuse for the year 2001, a rate of 248 crimes per•

100,000 children . The NCANDS data reports
2,333 incidents in 2001, for a rate of 166 per

15 .3% of the females and 5 .9% of the males
experienced some form of sexual assault (Moore,
Nord, & Peterson, 1989) .

100,000 children .

•Only 5 .7% of the incidents were reported to thepolice ; 26% of the incidents were not disclosed
to anyone prior to the study (Bony-McCoy &RESEARCH ESTIMATES

Prevalence refers to the proportion of a population

Finkelhor, 1995) .

that has experienced a particular event or behavior .

•Since it is not known how many people in the
United States experience a form of sexual abuse as

In summary, when compared with their malecounterparts, females were more likely to havebeen sexually abused during childhood .
Furthermore, females were more likely than themales to disclose such information ; however, dis-children, some researchers select groups, or samples, of individuals to study and direct questions tothem . If the selection of the group to be surveyed is
not biased, the results of the study provide esti-

closure rates are quite low regardless of the victim's gender .

mates of the prevalence of sexual abuse in the population from which the group is selected . In order toavoid bias in a sample, every person in the part of

Finkelhor and Jones (2004) have used data fromthe population to be used as a framework for select-

NCANDS to make a national estimate of the num-ing the sample must have an equal chance of being
asked to participate . Researchers use the data gath-ber of sexual abuse cases substantiated by childprotective service (CPS) for the period from 1992 to2000 . Using data from more than forty states theyered from those who participate to estimate theproportion of the United States population who aresexually abused during childhood .

report that the number of substantiated sexual

Studies of the incidence, as opposed to the preva-

cent per year through 2000-when the number oflence, of sexual abuse of children concentrate on

cases reached a low of approximately 89,355 .

abuse cases peaked at approximately 149,800 in
1992, followed by annual declines of 2 to 11 per-estimating the number of new cases occurring overa particular period of time and on whether the number of events or incidents is increasing or decreasing .

Professional opinion is divided about why this drop

Scholarly studies of both the incidence and the preva-

opposed to a reflection of factors such as changes inlence of sexual abuse of children in the United States

definitions, reporting and investigation by the states

began emerging in the 1960s and gained greater(Jones and Finkelhor, 2001 ; Jones, Finkelhor, andurgency after the cluster of day care center childabuse cases in the 1980s made the issue one of acute

Kopiec, 2001) . Finkelhor and Jones (2004) examined other indicia of sex abuse rates and conclude

public interest . A look at victimization studies that
focus on the sexual abuse of minor children suggests

that, taken together, they suggest that at least partoccurred and how much of the drop is real asthat the scope of this problem is extensive .

of the drop in cases has resulted from a decline insexual abuse of children . The National Crime

Although we do not have data reflecting the preva-

Victimization Survey (NCVS) - which asks aboutrape and sexual assault for victims ages 12 andlence of abusers, there are data from several studies

older (including acts counted within the broader

reporting the prevalence of victimization . The

definition of child sexual abuse) shows that sex

prevalence rates reported in these studies vary
somewhat .

offenses against children ages 12-17 declined 56
percent between 1993 and 2000 . Virtually all the• 27% of the females and 16% of the males dis-decline occurred in offenses committed by known

closed a history of childhood sexual abuse ; 42%perpetrators (family and acquaintances), 72 percent . Finkelhor and Jones observe that cases involv-of the males were likely to never have disclosed

ing known perpetrators are the ones most likely tothe experience to anyone whereas 33% of thefemales never disclosed (Finkelhor et al ., 1990) .

be categorized as sexual abuse .

1 56

large majority of victims of forcible fondling(84%), forcible sodomy (79%), and sexual assault
with an object (75%) ; of all victims of sexualassault, children below the age of 12 made up halfof the victims for the above categories . The single
age with the greatest proportion of sexual assault
victims reported to law enforcement was age 14(Langan & Harlow, 1992)

Another source of self-report data on sexual abuseis the Minnesota Student Survey which has been
administered to 6th, 9th, and 12th grade students in
Minnesota in 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, and 2001 .
Between 90 and 99 percent of Minnesota's school
districts and more than 100,000 students have participated in the survey each year . The survey includes
two questions about sexual abuse . Results indicatethat sexual abuse by family and nonfamily perpetrators showed a slight rise between 1989 and 1992 followed by a 22-percent drop from 1992 to 2001 .

One meta-analysis of the various studies on victim
prevalence found that the overall prevalence ofmale children who are sexually abused is 13 percent, whereas the prevalence of female children who
are sexually abused is 30 to 40 percent (Bolen &Scannapieco, 1999) . This study also identified threesignificant explanations as to why there is such awide range in childhood sexual victimization rates,
including the number of screen questions used to
identify abuse victims, the size of the sample, and theyears in which the studies were conducted .

At the same time reports of sexual abuse havedeclined, there has been a significant drop in crime
rates and measures of family problems, such as violence among adult intimates, and a drop in of outof-wedlock teenage pregnancies and live births toteenage mothers (some of which are attributable tochild sexual abuse) - all of these suggest a general
improvement in the well-being of children .

As will be illustrated in the subsequent sections, theprevalence and nature of sexual abuse within specific social organizations varies . However, thesevariations can be attributed to the inaccuracy typically associated with reporting crimes .

Additionally, Finkelhor and Jones suggest that rates
of sexual abuse have perhaps been reduced as aresult of increased incarceration for sexual abuse
offenders . They report that surveys of state correctional facilities indicate that between 1991 and
1997, the number of individuals incarcerated instate correctional facilities for sex crimes againstchildren rose 39 percent, from 43,500 to 60,700(Finkelhor and Ormrod, 2001), having alreadymore than doubled from 19,900 in 1986 . They further note that these totals do not include large numbers of sexual abusers who receive sanctions that do
not involve incarceration for a year or more .

REPORTING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Every published empirical study on the disclosureof child sexual abuse indicates that a high percentage of those child sexual abuse victims who reporttheir abuse to authorities delay disclosure of theirabuse, and that a significant number of children do
not disclose the abuse at all . The delay between theinitial occurrence and the subsequent disclosure of
the abuse varies, depending on a number 'of factors
such as the abused's age at the time of the events,
the relationship between the perpetrator and theabused, the gender of the abused, the severity of theabuse, developmental and cognitive variables
related to the abused, and the likely consequencesof the disclosure .

Statistics from recent United States JusticeDepartment studies of the prevalence of youth victimization confirm what other surveys have found :a startling proportion of young people experiencesexual victimization (Snyder, 2000) .
In a sample of 4,023 adolescents aged 12 to 17
across racial and ethnic groups, the lifetime prevalence for sexual assault is 8 .1% . Seventy-four percent of these children knew their assailant well ;32.5% were friends with the abuser (Snyder, 2000) .
Thirty-three percent of all victims of sexual assault
who reported to law enforcement agencies wereaged 12 through 17 and 34% were under the age of
12 (Langan & Harlow, 1992) . Juveniles were theConsequently, child sexual abuse is significantly
underreported . When victims do report that they
were abused, they often do so years after the abuseoccurred . Adult retrospective studies of childhood
sexual abuse underline the delay in disclosure . In a

1 57

Summit's (1983) model of child sexual abuse, theChild Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome,
explains the hindrance to disclosure . This syndrome
consists of five components : secrecy (the abuseoccurs when the victim and perpetrator are alone,
and the perpetrator encourages the victim to maintain secrecy) ; helplessness (children are obedient toadults and will usually obey the perpetrator who
encourages secrecy) ; entrapment and accommodation (once the child is helplessly entrenched in theabusive situation, he or she assumes responsibility
for the abuse and begins to dissociate from it) ;delayed disclosure (because the victims who reportchild sexual abuse often wait long periods of time
to disclose, their disclosures are subsequently questioned) ; and retraction (as in the recantation stage
described by Sorenson and Snow, the victims may
retract their disclosures of abuse after facing disbelief and lack of support after their disclosure) .

study of 228 adult female victims of childhood
incest who were predominantly abused by males,
Roesler and Weissmann-Wind (1994) found thatthe average age of first abuse was 6 years, and theabuse lasted on average 7 .6 years . Only one-third of
the subjects in this sample disclosed the abuse
before the age of 18, and the average age of disclosure was 25 .9 . Arata (1998) found that only 41%of the 204 female participants in her study, whose
average age at the time of victimization was 8 .5,
disclosed the abuse at the time it occurred . Lawson
and Chaffin (1992) found that only 43% of theirchild subjects disclosed their abuse when they were
initially interviewed . Lamb and Edgar-Smith (1994)
conducted a study with 45 adult female and 12 adultmale victims of childhood sexual abuse, and theyfound that although the average age at the time ofvictimization was 10, 64% of the victims disclosed
their abuse in adulthood . In a study of childhoodrape of girls, Smith, Letourneau, and Saunders(2000) found that approximately half of the women
waited more than eight years to disclose the abuse .

VICTIM'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE PERPETRATOR

If the perpetrator is a relative or acquaintance, victims of child sexual abuse are less likely to report
the offense, or they are . likely to disclose the abuse
after a delay (Arata, 1998 ; DiPetro, 2003 ; Hanson
et al, 1999 ; Smith et al, 2000 ; Wyatt andNewcomb, 1990) .

The process of disclosing childhood sexual abusevaries, though it is often described within two axes :as purposeful or accidental ; and as spontaneous orprompted. DeVoe and Coulborn-Faller (1999)
found that child subjects in their study required
assistance with disclosure . Sorenson and Snow
(1991) noted that accidental disclosure was morecommon in preschool children, whereas purposeful
disclosure was more common in adolescents . They
also found four stages of disclosure in their retrospective study of 630 subjects who were aged three
to 17 at the time of abuse : denial, disclosure (tentative and active), recantation and reaffirmation .
These researchers also found that 72% of their subjects originally denied the abuse ; 78% of the subjects who tentatively revealed their abuse progressed to active disclosure ; 22% recanted theirreports, and of those who recanted 93% later reaffirmed the original report . Lawson and Chaffin(1992) found that a significant factor in the disclosure process was the belief of the caretaker in theveracity of the disclosure . Bradley and 'Wood's(1996) research also supported the notion that therole of the caretaker is essential . Although recantations of disclosure were rare in their sample, theyfound that 50% of children who recanted did sounder pressure from a caretaker .

In Arata's study, 73% of the victims did not disclose
the abuse when the perpetrator was a relative or stepparent, and 70% did not disclose when the perpetrator was an acquaintance . Goodman-Brown,
Edelstein, and Goodman found that those children
who felt responsible for the abuse, often because theabuse occurred within the family, took longer toreport the abuse . Wyatt and Newcomb found that the
women who did not disclose their abuse to anyone
were likely to have been closely related to the perpetrator and abused in close proximity to their home .
SEVERITY OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Research results vary in regard to disclosure ofabuse in relation to the severity of that abuse . Arata(1998) found that child victims who experienced
more severe levels of sexual abuse were less likely todisclose this type of abuse . This is consistent withthe findings of Gries, Goh, and Cavanaugh (1996),
who reported that fondling was reported by 80% of
their subjects who disclosed . In contrast, however,Hanson et al . (1999) found that of their 341 adult158

does not appear to be as important, however, as victim-perpetrator relationship in disclosure of abuse(Paine and Hanson, 2002) .

females who were victims of childhood rape, themore severe assaults were likely to be reported .
DiPietro et al . (1998) also found that contact sexual
offenses were those most commonly reported intheir sample of 76 children.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE WITHINSPECIFIC SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONSDEVELOPMENTAL AND COGNITIVE VARIABLES

Lamb and Edgar-Smith (1994) speculate that "moreastute" children may riot disclose because they may"anticipate unsupportive reactions ." They also
maintain that such children may wait until adulthood to disclose when they can choose appropriate
people to tell . White et al . (1986), as cited inCampis et al. (1993), found that older victims ofchild sexual abuse were less likely to disclose thantheir younger counterparts and noted that theknowledge of social consequences was a significant
hindrance to disclosure . Keary and Fitzpatrick(1994) concluded that children over the age of five,
who had previously disclosed sexual abuse, weremore likely to disclose this information during formal assessment, but the converse was true for children under five . Similarly, DiPietro (2003) foundthat "developmental maturation clearly facilitates"
disclosure (p. 140) .

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

In 1991, journalist Patrick Boyle investigated theconfidential files of the Boy Scouts and reported his
findings in a five-part series in The Washington
Times during the week of May 20-24, 1991 . The
results of his investigation are also included in his
1994 book, Scout's Honor : Sexual Abuse in
America's Most Trusted Institution . In the first article of the series, Boyle outlined the statistics ofabuse in this organization . According to the Boy
Scout records, 416 male Scout employees werebanned between the periods of 1971 to 1989 as aresult of sexual misconduct . Boyle stated that there
were 1,151 reported cases of sexual abuse within,this time period . The Boy Scouts had one million
adult volunteers and four million Scouts (including
Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc .) during this time
period . The majority of the victims were believed tohave been Boy Scouts, who typically range in age
from 11 to 17 . Boyle found that Scoutmasters perpetrated the majority of the abuse, but Assistant
Scoutmasters, of which there were roughly
147,000, were also responsible . It also appears thatmost of the abuse occurred during camping trips .
The Scouts claimed that sexual abuse in this organization was not a major crisis, but Boyle argued thatsexual abuse is more common in Scouting than
accidental deaths or serious injuries combined .

FEAR OF NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

Sorenson and Snow (1991) found that fear of further
harm had an impact on a child's motivation to disclose abuse and that the child victims often only felt
safe enough to disclose after the departure of the perpetrator. Berliner and Conte (1995) also noted thatthe fear about perceived reactions of others prevents
some children from disclosing sexual abuse . Roesler
and Weissmann-Wind (1994) found that 33 .3% of
their subjects did not disclose their abuse duringchildhood because they feared for their safety. They
also found that 32 .9% of their subjects did notreport their abuse during childhood because they felt
guilt or shame as a result of the abuse .

The four other parts in this series focused on various topics through case study illustration . The articles assert that the organization let known childmolesters slip through the system and that thisinformation was covered up in a manner thatwould protect the image of the Boy Scouts . When a
Scoutmaster was reported to local Scout officials,
Boyle stated that they often made deals in order toensure that the scandal would remain a secret . If the
Scoutmaster agreed to leave, then there would be
no police involvement . What the Scouts did not
realize is that the offenders were moving away andjoining new troops where they continued to offend .

GENDER DIFFERENCES

DeVoe and Coulborn-Faller ; Gries, Goh, andCavanaugh ; Lamb and Edgar-Smith ; and Walrath,
Ybarra, and Holden all found that girls are more
likely to report abuse than boys . Reinhart foundthat sexual abuse of males was more likely to bedisclosed by a third party. There are no methodologically sound empirical studies that indicate thatmales disclose at a higher rate than females . Gender

159

BIG BROTHER ORGANIZATION

Even those offenders who were reported to the
Scouts National Headquarters purportedly managed to evade the system and continued to act as
Scoutmasters .

The purpose of the Big Brother organization is toprovide a mentor for economically or situationallydisadvantaged youths between the ages of sevenand thirteen . As with the Boy Scouts, the Big
Brother/Sister organization has also experienced
incidents of sexual abuse . No empirical data exist,
but a database search of major newspapers revealed
six published incidents between 1973 and 2001 . Aswith the Boy Scouts, the offenders hailed from avariety of professions, including a school principal
and naval officer.

Boyle also discussed the impact of the abuse on theboys through individual narratives . Since the information in the confidential files is limited, the effectsof the abuse on the children are unknown . However,Boyle asserts that out of the approximately 400
abuse cases he investigated, four victims attemptedsuicide and at least three leaders who were charged
with abuse also made suicide attempts .

As cited in Boyle (1994), Donald Wolff reviewed
100 allegations of sexual abuse in the Big Brother
Organization and determined that, much like
Scouting, the majority of offenders were single andcame from various professions . These results werebased upon an unpublished study commissioned by
the Big Brother Organization that was subsequently
presented at an inter-organizational conference . The
sexual abuse progressed from inappropriate touching
to other sexual acts, and the most common situations
in which the abuse occurred were camping trips andvisits to the perpetrator's house . These offenders also
appeared to target emotionally vulnerable children .
However, unlike the Boy Scouts or Catholic Church,
once criminal charges were filed, Wolff found thatthey often led to confessions or convictions . The
review also showed that many of the perpetrators
were also involved in educating and counseling children other than the Boy Scouts. In light of these findings, the Big Brothers have instituted a strict screening process, which involves a criminal backgroundcheck for all volunteers.

As public awareness concerning the abuse grew, theBoy Scouts recognized the need to combat thisproblem . Boyle claims that the organization has
paid at least fifteen million dollars in order to settle
cases out of court, with payments ranging from
$12,000 to $1 .5 million. In cooperation withexperts in the field of sexual abuse, the Scouts havedeveloped an extensive training program, which ismeant to raise the awareness of both children and
Scoutmasters . It has recently become a requirementthat all employees must pass a background check inorder to work for the Boy Scouts . They have also
instituted policies prohibiting homosexual Scoutleaders, which have come under the scrutiny of various civil rights organizations .
While there are not any empirical studies devoted tounderstanding the prevalence of sexual abuse in the
Boy Scouts, the work of Patrick Boyle is the mostcomprehensive, albeit dated, information available.
A database search of major newspapers illustrates
that between 1970 and 2003, 22 incidents havebeen reported in major newspapers . The majorityof the cases fit Boyle's findings in that the perpetrators used various "grooming" tactics in order tocoerce the victim into sexual acts . The number ofknown victims for each offender ranged from one
to 20, with some victims not coming forward until
adulthood . In many cases, the Scoutmaster knew
the child's parents, and the offenses ranged frominappropriate touching to intercourse . While themajority of the information presented in these articles is scarce, the information indicates that some ofthe perpetrators also worked as teachers andCatholic priests .

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (YMCA)

There is no record of any empirical data or official
reports outlining the prevalence of sexual abuse in
the YMCA, but journalistic reports provide someinsight . There are eight major news articles thatdeal directly with YMCA volunteers molesting children . The perpetrators worked for the organizationin various capacities, including camp counselors
and sports coaches . The offenders targeted both
girls and boys, and many of the articles illustrated
that the perpetrator in question was a habitual
offender. One offender claimed he had targeted 20
victims while another had been charged with 75
counts off sexual abuse, including 10 counts of rape .

1 60

Despite these cautions, the researchers were able toestimate the following statistics : 30 .7 of every
10,000 centers and 15 .3 of every 10,000 families
have cases of reported child sexual abuse ; 5 .5 out of
every 10,000 children enrolled in day-care centersand 8 .9 children out of every 10,000 children infamilies are reported to be sexually abused . The
researchers concluded that while a day-care center
is more likely to be reported for sexual abuse, therisk of a child being abused is actually lower whenenrolled in a center than in their own home due tothe presence of more children . In evaluating the perpetrators, the following relationships were revealed :16% of perpetrators were directors/owners ; 30%
were teachers ; 15% were nonprofessional childcaretakers; 8% were in a non-child care capacity ;25% were family members of the staff; and 5% wereoutsiders . There also appeared to be a rather highnumber of female perpetrators involved in day careabuse, including 44% of child care workers, 6% offamily members, and 6% of multiple perpetrators .

Some of the perpetrators had prior records for sexual abuse, and some were employed in schools .
ATHLETIC ORGANIZATIONSThere is no empirical data indicating the prevalenceof sexual abuse within sporting organizations .
However, a review of journalistic reports yielded thelargest findings out of any other youth organization .
Forty-five articles were devoted to sexual abuse cases
in a variety of sports including swimming, basketball, baseball, track and field, football, soccer,
hockey and gymnastics . The majority of the cases
illustrate that the perpetrator was somehow involved
with a school, either as a teacher or principal . Manyof the perpetrators appeared to have multiple victims. The offenders also appeared to groom their victims over a period of time . One case involved a coach
who was charged with 400 counts of sexual abuse,though most perpetrators had approximately 10 to
12 alleged victims, and the offending behaviors
ranged from touching to rape . The perpetrators also
"groomed" the victims' families, socializing withthem in order to gain their trust and access to the victim. The cases occurred in North America, theUnited Kingdom and Ireland, and a few included
prominent figures in their respective sport . In manyof the cases, the coaches were suspended from theorganization or were subjected to criminal charges .
The victims ranged in age ; however, a majority ofthem appeared to be in their teens .

CATHOLIC CHURCH

The prevalence of sexual misconduct within the
Catholic Church has been estimated by a number ofsocial scientists . In an empirical investigation oftreatment efficacy, Loftus and Camargo (1993)
concluded that in their clinical sample of 1,322
priests and brothers, 27.8% reported having
engaged in a sexual relationship with an adultwoman while 8 .4% reported sexual misconduct
with a minor. Another researcher, Anthony Sipe(1990), showed that 2% of priests engage inpedophiliacbehavior while an additional 4% ofpriests are sexually preoccupied with adolescentboys or girls . Sipe also concluded that 20% to 40%
of priests engage in sexual misconduct with adults .
However, these figures must be interpreted withcaution due to the fact that they are based upon theauthors' clinical experiences and not empirical evidence . Fones et al. (1999) found that in a sample of
19 clergymen (17 of which were Roman Catholic
priests), 39% of the sample had offended against
adolescents and S2% characterized the nature of
their sexual behavior as deliberate . Like most studies
conducted on this population, these results should becautiously interpreted since the small sample size
makes them unlikely to be generalizable .

CHILD CAREGIVERS

Finkelhor et al . (1988) conducted an empirical
study that evaluated substantiated claims of sexual
abuse from center-based and family-based day careinstitutions . In order to be included in this study, thefacility had to cater to children six years of age or
younger; 270 institutions were so identified .
Substantiation was based upon the investigations oflocal agencies including child protection, licensing,and police agencies . The study yielded 1,639 victims(484 girls, 269 boys, and 859 victims for which gender was not unidentified) and 382 perpetrators (222males, 147 females, and 13 whose gender was not
identified) over the time period of 1983-1985 . The
authors urge that the data be interpreted with caution due to the fact that some government agencies
did not cooperate with the researchers' requests andthat the information sought was not always kept in
one location and not uniformly organized.

161

In response to this apparent lack of knowledge, various theological scholars within the Catholic
Church have undertaken the task of assessing thetrue extent of the abuse . Plante (2003) extrapolated
from data presented by the St . Luke's Institute toconclude that during the past 50 years sexual
offenses have been committed by an estimated3,000 clerics, thus resulting in 24,000 victims .
However, Plante noted that this figure may be comprised of men from various religions, and therefore
it cannot be concluded that all of the offenders are
Catholic priests . In a literature review conducted by
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights(2004), the figure for abusive clerics cited in the
media ranged anywhere from 1 to 1 .8 percent.

While the social sciences have grappled with theestablishment of a methodologically sound prevalence rate, journalists throughout the nation havealso posed various figures . Jason Berry (1992)
claims there are 400 priests and brothers who havesexually abused children . These figures are based
upon Berry's coverage of the sexual abuse cases inLouisiana between 1984 and 1992 . During thistime period, Berry estimates that the Catholic
Church spent nearly $400 million in legal, medical,
and psychological expenses . A recent archival investigation conducted by New York Times reporter
Laurie Goodstein (2003) postulates that by the endof 2002, more than 1,205 clerics had been named
either publicly or privately by 4,268 victims . Fortythree percent of clerics are said to have offended
against children younger than age 12, and the
majority of abusive acts were focused upon boys(80%) . The alleged abuse is postulated to haveoccurred most frequently during the 1970's and1980's. Goodstein reports that the abuse is purported to have occurred most frequently during the1970's and 1980's . Half of the investigated clerics
have been listed as having multiple victims, and
16% accounted for having five or more victims .

The primary problem with these studies is that they
are based upon speculation about the true natureand scope of child sexual abuse in the Catholic
Church. Researchers from John Jay College of
Criminal justice (2004) conducted a descriptive
study of the nature and scope of the problem, seeking information from all dioceses and religious
communities in the United States . They found that
4,392 priests and deacons had allegations of childsexual abuse from 1950-2002 against 10,667 children, representing approximately 4% of all priests
in the United States in that time period .

While these studies might begin to shed some lightupon the true state of affairs within the Catholic
Church, they are not sound enough to utilize indrawing conclusions . This presents a very interesting conundrum in which lack of information andinstitutional secrecy leads to sensationalism .
According to Jenkins (1995), the emphasis upon
sexual abuse committed by the clergy is a result ofa shift in media coverage beginning during the
1980s . As a result, the image of the "pedophilepriest" (Jenkins, 1996) was created and endorsedby the media and special interest groups in order tofurther their causes . While the media has portrayedthis "crisis" as being centered solely in, the Catholic
Church, Jenkins offers evidence through the citation of liability insurance that illustrates that there
were several hundred cases of sexual abuse involving non-Catholic clergy.

A recent attempt to place the issue of sexual abuse
and the clergy into a proper perspective was undertaken by Kafka (2004) at the behest of the Vatican .
Through a critical review of the available literature,
Kafka stated that the typical child sexual abuser in
the Catholic Church is a diocesan priest who is anephebophile. Though primary knowledge is fromclinical samples, clergy offenders seem to differ
from offenders in the general population . Studies
that have examined clergy with co-occurring problems have found them to exhibit fewer psychological problems than other sex offenders. However,methodological limitations preclude firm conclusions about groups of clergy who offend .

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