Dad29You'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.
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1 comment:
You should seek more relible sources than D29.
Usher gives stats on victims, but does not address who the perpetrators are, which is what Archbishop Dolan was speaking about.
The NIS–4 that Usher cites does not address the broad question of the marital status of perpetrators. The study is more narrowly focused: In "deciding whether children qualified as countable in the NIS–4...The perpetrator of alleged abuse had to be an adult in charge of the child’s care (such as a parent, adult baby-sitter, etc.) or, if the abuser did not meet this requirement, then a parent or caregiver had to permit the abuse" (p. 6-1). so, neither Usher nor NIS-4 are helpful here.
Every source of statistics that I have been able to locate online - sources with various methodologies and agendas - indicate that the majority of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are, in fact, married, just as the archbishop claimed.
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