Not as frequent among Christians as among RCs, but just as devastating if today's Newcastle allegations are true. Use of statistics to tar members of any subgroup of the community with the one brush in unjust, especially if it doesn't include estimates of the numbers of the subgroup who have NOT molested children or in any way facilitated child abuse.

The issue that bugs me most in this is not the existence of paedophile priests. They like any abusers have massive problems but also made choices to abuse. What really irks me is the apparent systemic cover ups and placing known abusers back into positions where further opportunities to abuse occurred, seemingly time after time. Based on what I've seen of the numbers and the patterns the catholic leadership must have known there was a problem, not just an isolated case but sufficient numbers that alarm bells should have been ringing. It appears from the outside that the only alarm bells that rang were ones about protecting the church. None about protecting those being abused. BTW its not just the paedophile priests, from the stories I've heard from women who had the benefit of being in the care of "nuns" as children the types of abuse inflicted go well beyond just the sexual. R0bert

phanto,

I agree that access to children could be a factor. I alluded to this earlier. But research involving rape scripts suggest that claims of power being the sole driving force behind rape and sexual assault are exaggerated. There appears to be all sorts of motives behind why someone rapes or sexually assaults another, and these can also differ depending on situational factors and whether or not the perpetrator knows the victim. (Beauregard & Leclerc, 2007)

A J Philips:

I didn't say rape was about power. I said power over children is one of the factors that leads to conditions which favour pedophilia. Access to children is another condition. I was making the point that instances of abuse are more likely to occur where conditions are more favourable whether the person is celibate or not. It is about opportunity and not sexual lifestyle.

In the same way rape is about opportunity and not about sexual lifestyle. A person rapes because they can - the opportunity presents itself. It does not say anything about the pros or cons of their lifestyle. They might be happily married with a good sexual relationship at home but they still rape.

Why not consider abuse more broadly, as patterns of behavior over time. What can the Stolen Generations and others tell us about all of this starting from the end of WWII?

The war victors of that time, in the shadow of terrible atrocities, undertook to stand up against crimes against humanity, in all of its forms, including its precursors.

But is it not true that children were not only abused, but whored out of "stations" and "missions" in some parts of Australia in the aftermath of this.

One of my concerns has always been that if you tolerate child abuse in any of its forms, soon enough the perpetrators will be abusing your own kids.

I'd love to see a history on any vigilantism that occurred as a consequence of this. But alas, I digress.

A unified approach is required, to get down there in suits with crow bars and lift the lid on all of the fetid sh!t wholes in this tin pot little place. Aged Care, Disability, Private Homes etc must all be able to be called to answer allegations as and when they arise, quickly and easily. We can well do without a patchwork quilt on this one for still there are those who are suffering who you may yet save, sooner rather than later.

As for Pell et al had these people come out in the early stages and screamed, "Christ! Devil Spawn walks among us and predates upon the Faithful, and we have been blind to it. Quick, gather with all hast, and let us unite to seek truth and justice!"

But no, they did everything they could it would appear to cover up, with their little towards healing tribunals offering some peanuts for silence.

And then, surprise, surprise, the allegations go right to the Bishop himself. .. And to see how the law here can be used to provide haven for such criminals for such lengths of time is again, perhaps not that surprising.

Best way to sway the others is by example, without excessive self promotion. Best get about it Australia ..

"They might be happily married with a good sexual relationship at home but they still rape."

phanto my suspicion is that is one of those half truths put out to try and score political points rather than provide an accurate view of risk factors. Like the DV can happen in any home, sort of true but it ignores a whole lot of correlation factors. Eg I suspect it is much more likely in conjunction with other significant dis-functionality.

I've not found much in the way of credible metadata research on the topic.

A few interesting links I have come across
- http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/proceedings/20/crake.pdf
- https://www.rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence
- https://www.nsopw.gov/en/Education/FactsStatistics?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#sexualabuse

R0bert