Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Abp Dolan's Big Mistake

You'll hear more about this. Abp Dolan was interviewed by 60 Minutes.

When Safer suggested that the incidence of priests sexually abusing children might be decreased if Catholic clergy were allowed to be married, Dolan responded, "I don't know if – what we know scholarship-wise would back that up, Morley. The greatest culprits in sexual abuse are unfortunately married men. So, I don't know if marriage is the answer."

The Archbishop is wrong.

A fellow named David Usher cited a study:

The study found sexual abuse – indeed all forms of abuse – to be least common in homes with married biological parents. According to the report, only about 1 in 2,000 children in such homes suffer sexual abuse.
By comparison, the report states, 5 of every 2,000 children in single-parent households – and 20 of every 2,000 children in households where a single parent welcomes a partner into the home – suffers sexual abuse.

Those results are consistent with what's been reported for over 20 years in a variety of studies.  

We expect that the Archbishop will "clarify" or retract.


2 comments:

GOR said...

If the archbishop had said 'within families' - rather than 'married men' - I think he would be on more solid ground.

At least from what I have read over the years it is commonly stated that more abuse occurs within families than elsewhere - and that most goes unreported. Though, if unreported, one wonders how then do they know this...?

Dad29 said...

The (old) Rockford Institute published at least 3 or 4 studies which definitively showed that "boyfriends" and "second-husbands" were SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to abuse than the natural father.

So even to say "within families" is misleading.

The stats are about the same as in the linked article.