RE: Sexual Abuse in Social Context: Clergy and other (Secular) Professionals.
July 13, 2023 at 9:33 pm
(This post was last modified: July 13, 2023 at 9:37 pm by Nishant Xavier.
Edit Reason: Forgot a Link. Edited to add it.
)
Now, as promised, let's come to the 2nd data point, the statistics for Secular Teachers. And what are Priests btw? Nothing but Religious Teachers, i.e. Teachers of Religion. So the analogy is exact. And the stats show that in the same way that Secular Teachers are Teachers of Math, Science etc. and obviously, there is nothing in Math, Science etc that causes them to abuse, neither is there likewise in Christianity or Religion. Let's look at the stats:
2. "Moving molesting teachers from school district to school district is a common phenomenon. And in only 1 percent of the cases do superintendents notify the new school district.[xxxiv] According to Diana Jean Schemo, the term “passing the trash” is the preferred jargon among educators.[xxxv]
Shakeshaft has also determined that 15 percent of all students have experienced some kind of sexual misconduct by a teacher between kindergarten and 12th grade; the behaviors range from touching to forced penetration.[xxxvi] She and Cohan also found that up to 5 percent of teachers sexually abuse children.[xxxvii]"
So did you catch that, 3 sub-divisions within this data point (1) only in 1 percent are the new superintendents notified of the history of abuse (2) 15% of students have experienced sexual misconduct from Teachers, ranging from touching to forced penetration (3) 5% of Teachers are Child Abusers.
So, let's put it all together. I'm going to use Average Figures for Ease of Comparison:
(1) Catholic Priests: 0.2-1.7 so (0.2%+1.7%)/2=0.95%, which we'll round up as 1%.
(2) Protestant Pastors: 2-3%, so 2.5% on average.
(3) As for Secular School Teachers, the figure is 5%.
And since 5%(Teachers)>2.5%(Pastors)>1%(Priests),
So, the real conclusion is, the cases are worse in Secular Schools than in Protestant Churches, which in turn is less than in the Catholic Church.
Some more stats on Teachers; "Of children in 8th through 11th grade, about 3.5 million students (nearly 7%) surveyed reported having had physical sexual contact from an adult (most often a teacher or coach). The type of physical contact ranged from unwanted touching of their body, all the way up to sexual intercourse. This statistic increases to about 4.5 million children (10%) when it takes other types of sexual misconduct into consideration, such as being shown pornography or being subjected to sexually explicit language or exhibitionism." From: https://childrenstreatmentcenter.com/sex...-teachers/
This is a real endemic that percolates across various sectors of society, but singling out all Priests as abusers is clearly unjust in light of the above. Any more than singling out Secular Teachers would be.
I knew I'd have to keep refuting the strawman, so let me do it again: No, I'm not saying, the percentage is small, therefore it's ok. 1 Child Abused is 1 Child Too Many. Every Child Abuse is a Mortal Sin and a Civil Crime worthy of Eternal Hell-Fire and Legal Punishment. Yet, in light of the above, I don't know what we would call it - "teachophobia" and Anti-Teacher Bigotry? - if anyone claimed most Teachers are Abusers, but for the same reason, it is simply nothing else and nothing but Christophobia and Anti-Catholic Bigotry to say most Priests, let alone Nuns - where such accusations have not even been heard of - are abusers. The data clearly indicates, if anything, Priests and Pastors have done a better job in rooting out such abuses than Secular Teachers.
Finally, please note that the above represents % of accused. Not every person accused is ultimately found guilty. This is best illustrated by the false accusations against Cardinal Pell:
(1) The Cardinal Pell case: Those who followed the case of Aussie Cardinal Pell will remember this. It was the highest ever Churchman, and a Conservative Pro-Life one at that, accused of child abuse. The media were salivating, they had already judged the case, and were just waiting for Pell to be proclaimed guilty. But the court found him innocent.
Here's the event: "Cardinal Pell spent more than a year in solitary confinement in his native Australia after a jury found him guilty in 2018 of assaulting two teenage choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral while he was the city's archbishop in the 1990s. His conviction was overturned by a top Australian court in 2020." From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituarie...ual-abuse/
(2) As for those who are guilty but not reported, those will exist anywhere, whether among Clergy or Teachers. It would probably even out with the number wrongly accused but actually innocent. In other words, let's suppose 100 X are abusers, and accused, then it's reported as 100. 5 are truly guilty, but not reported. So, there were actually 105 abusers. But 5 likewise, like Cardinal Pell, are wrongly accused, but in fact innocent. So it would pretty much even out - and just alleging that every Priest is an abuser without one single concrete accusation against him is not credible.
Everyone has a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, i.e. until there is a serious charge against him. The instant there is a serious charge against him, he should be removed from further contact with children. If found guilty, he should be laicized and sent to a Penitentiary.
That's my opinion. But the stats and the facts are clear. Hymn4n, not going to the Theological questions on this thread. Will answer them later.
2. "Moving molesting teachers from school district to school district is a common phenomenon. And in only 1 percent of the cases do superintendents notify the new school district.[xxxiv] According to Diana Jean Schemo, the term “passing the trash” is the preferred jargon among educators.[xxxv]
Shakeshaft has also determined that 15 percent of all students have experienced some kind of sexual misconduct by a teacher between kindergarten and 12th grade; the behaviors range from touching to forced penetration.[xxxvi] She and Cohan also found that up to 5 percent of teachers sexually abuse children.[xxxvii]"
So did you catch that, 3 sub-divisions within this data point (1) only in 1 percent are the new superintendents notified of the history of abuse (2) 15% of students have experienced sexual misconduct from Teachers, ranging from touching to forced penetration (3) 5% of Teachers are Child Abusers.
So, let's put it all together. I'm going to use Average Figures for Ease of Comparison:
(1) Catholic Priests: 0.2-1.7 so (0.2%+1.7%)/2=0.95%, which we'll round up as 1%.
(2) Protestant Pastors: 2-3%, so 2.5% on average.
(3) As for Secular School Teachers, the figure is 5%.
And since 5%(Teachers)>2.5%(Pastors)>1%(Priests),
So, the real conclusion is, the cases are worse in Secular Schools than in Protestant Churches, which in turn is less than in the Catholic Church.
Some more stats on Teachers; "Of children in 8th through 11th grade, about 3.5 million students (nearly 7%) surveyed reported having had physical sexual contact from an adult (most often a teacher or coach). The type of physical contact ranged from unwanted touching of their body, all the way up to sexual intercourse. This statistic increases to about 4.5 million children (10%) when it takes other types of sexual misconduct into consideration, such as being shown pornography or being subjected to sexually explicit language or exhibitionism." From: https://childrenstreatmentcenter.com/sex...-teachers/
This is a real endemic that percolates across various sectors of society, but singling out all Priests as abusers is clearly unjust in light of the above. Any more than singling out Secular Teachers would be.
I knew I'd have to keep refuting the strawman, so let me do it again: No, I'm not saying, the percentage is small, therefore it's ok. 1 Child Abused is 1 Child Too Many. Every Child Abuse is a Mortal Sin and a Civil Crime worthy of Eternal Hell-Fire and Legal Punishment. Yet, in light of the above, I don't know what we would call it - "teachophobia" and Anti-Teacher Bigotry? - if anyone claimed most Teachers are Abusers, but for the same reason, it is simply nothing else and nothing but Christophobia and Anti-Catholic Bigotry to say most Priests, let alone Nuns - where such accusations have not even been heard of - are abusers. The data clearly indicates, if anything, Priests and Pastors have done a better job in rooting out such abuses than Secular Teachers.
Finally, please note that the above represents % of accused. Not every person accused is ultimately found guilty. This is best illustrated by the false accusations against Cardinal Pell:
(1) The Cardinal Pell case: Those who followed the case of Aussie Cardinal Pell will remember this. It was the highest ever Churchman, and a Conservative Pro-Life one at that, accused of child abuse. The media were salivating, they had already judged the case, and were just waiting for Pell to be proclaimed guilty. But the court found him innocent.
Here's the event: "Cardinal Pell spent more than a year in solitary confinement in his native Australia after a jury found him guilty in 2018 of assaulting two teenage choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral while he was the city's archbishop in the 1990s. His conviction was overturned by a top Australian court in 2020." From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituarie...ual-abuse/
(2) As for those who are guilty but not reported, those will exist anywhere, whether among Clergy or Teachers. It would probably even out with the number wrongly accused but actually innocent. In other words, let's suppose 100 X are abusers, and accused, then it's reported as 100. 5 are truly guilty, but not reported. So, there were actually 105 abusers. But 5 likewise, like Cardinal Pell, are wrongly accused, but in fact innocent. So it would pretty much even out - and just alleging that every Priest is an abuser without one single concrete accusation against him is not credible.
Everyone has a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, i.e. until there is a serious charge against him. The instant there is a serious charge against him, he should be removed from further contact with children. If found guilty, he should be laicized and sent to a Penitentiary.
That's my opinion. But the stats and the facts are clear. Hymn4n, not going to the Theological questions on this thread. Will answer them later.
