stats

Main page * Site map * My story * Survivors' bill of rights * Who we are * Info for survivors * Writings by survivors * Motivating thoughts * Forgiveness and apologies * Protocols * Protection skills * News and laws worldwide * Statistics * Post-traumatic stress disorder * Perpetrator list * Books * Contacts * Links * Email me

Statistics

As of 2005, there was still very little in the way of Australian figures for clergy sexual abuse, but later data has confirmed that incidence of clergy abuse in Australia was/is in line with other countries. In all the research results given, country of origin is named where known. Many of the links given are now defunct, but I have left them as a record of where the information was collected from.

Some figures are cited for other professional/health care fields, but given the factors in church systems of a) less mechanisms for accountability; b) often no clear Codes of Ethics (at least until recently); and c) minimal training in counselling and professional boundaries, it would be surprising if the incidence of abuse by clergy is lower. I have included paedophilia statistics as well, since there is a huge overlap between clergy abusers and paedophiles - but I stress that this is not intended to negate the experience of adult victims of clergy misconduct.

Statistical evidence suggests between 10 & 23% of clergy nationwide have engaged in sexual behaviour with parishioners/clients/employees. (quote from "Policies and Procedures on Sexual Misconduct" - General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA 1991)
In one survey, 23% of evangelical ministers admitted to sexually inappropriate behaviour during the course of their ministry, and 12% admitted to sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse. (cited in Christianity Today USA "Conduct Unbecoming to a Preacher" - 10 Feb 1992)
Another clergy survey had 33% admitting to sexually inappropriate behaviour, and 13% admitted to intercourse with a parishioner. (cited in Tim LaHaye, "If Ministers Fail, Can They Be Restored?" - Zondervan, USA, 1990)
In 1999, the Catholic church's independent commissioner, Peter O'Callaghan, QC, said he had referred about 65 complaints about clergy in the Melbourne archdiocese to the Towards Healing compensation panel during the past 2.5 years. "In my capacity as independent commissioner, I have investigated a significant number of complaints of sexual abuse," O'Callaghan told the Herald Sun. "In the great majority of those complaints I have been satisfied of their validity." (from http://www.antichrist.com.au/1999/9904/9904towardshealing.html )
One author asserts that while alcoholism is the most common factor in sexually abusive parents, "conservative religious belief" is the second most common factor. (Carolyn Holderread Heggen, "Sexual Abuse in Christian Homes and Churches" 1993)
Between 1990 and 2000, there have been 450 child sexual assaults by church workers acknowledged by Australian courts, compared with no convictions for child sexual assault by workers in the sex industry. Both the churches and the sex industry employ around 20,000 people. (Hypocrites, Eros Foundation, April 2000)
One US Catholic researcher gives the following figures: 2-5% of priests have had a sexual experience with a minor. The average number of victims per sex offending priest is 8 and the average number of incidents per sex offending priest is 32. (Thomas Plante, Santa Clara University, USA)
Southdown Institute, a Canadian treatment centre for religious personnel with problems, says that 15% of the 2500 male clergy that have been treated at the centre in the last 37 years were admitted for sexual abuse of minors. (Quoted in Wolf Blitzer Show, CNN, 15/11/2002)
"Across the nation, Catholic dioceses have paid out an estimated $800 million in settlements of clergy sexual misconduct lawsuits in the past 15 years. Estimates of the number of priests involved range from 400 to 1000 out of a total priest population of about 50,000" (reported by J. Michael Parker, Express-News, USA, 4th June 1998)
The Anglican diocese of Cariboo (Canada) is near bankruptcy due to sexual abuse compensation payouts. The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is considering filing for bankruptcy (December 2002) for the same reason. The Catholic diocese of Santa Rosa (California) has had to borrow heavily to pay out on compensation suits. (Please note: In none of these cases was litigation anything but a last resort for the victims. Most, if not all, had previously approached the church for help and counsel, and it was the callous stonewalling of the church that drove the victims to lawsuits. The fact that they won their suits is testament to the legal validity of their claims.)
The Anglican diocese of Brisbane has raised the potential of bankruptcy were they obliged to pay out on abuse claims. This would be consistent with the Archbishop's statement that the proposed inquiry into the diocese's handling of abuse claims over the period 1990-2001 would be examining some 40-50 cases. (SMH 20/2/2002)
One researcher claims that the problem is greater in Protestants than among Catholics, stating 1.7% of Catholic priests are abusers, but 10% of Protestant ministers are abusers (cited in http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/2213/pedoph.html )
Seventy percent of Southern Baptist ministers in 1993 knew of other ministers who had sexual contact with someone in their church. Twelve percent of Protestant ministers surveyed in 1988 had had intercourse outside of marriage, and 30% of those relationships were with someone in the congregation. Nearly 40% of the ministers surveyed by the Fuller Seminary in 1984 reported that they had had sexual contact with a church member. Nearly 13% confessed to sexual intercourse with a congregant. This behavior is so widespread that Church Mutual Insurance Co., the leading insurer of worship centers in America, receives on average of four or five claims of clergy abuse a week. (from Centre for Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, Seattle)
In the early 2000s, the largest lawsuit against a church for mismanagement and cover-up of abuse within its ranks was against the Mormon Church in USA, for $750M. (For details, see http://www.childpro.org/ )
Survivors First, a Massachusetts-based activist group, using only newspaper articles referred to them by supporters, was able to list 48 priests convicted of sexual offences between Jan 2002 and Nov 2003. (http://www.survivorsfirst.org/conpriests-11082003.html )
CNN reported that the draft version of the US National Conference of Catholic Bishops self-report survey completed in February 2004 said that 11,000 abuse claims have been filed against the US churchmen since 1950, with a total of 1413 clergy abusers. However, at the time of the draft report only 84 of 195 diocesan bishops had contributed, and CNN's own research uncovered media records of 4,450 US Catholic clergy accused of molesting minors during that period. Note: It is likely that, since this was a self-report survey, and victims have since declared of cases which were definitely not included in that count, that the actual figure may be substantially higher.
Dr William Glaser, a Melbourne forensic psychiatrist, said in his keynote address to the Australian Institute of Criminology Conference in April 1997 that paedophilia is at epidemic levels in Australia. (from http://www.aic.gov.au/media/970411.html )
One survey of psychiatrists revealed 7.1% admitted to a sexual relationship with some clients. (cited in Peter Rutter, "Sex in the Forbidden Zone", Mandala Press, London, 1989. p.35)
A similar survey of physicians revealed 13% had sexual involvement with patients, with 80% of these having an average of six victims. (also Rutter, "Sex in the Forbidden Zone")
In the 1970's a study was conducted on 206 girls and women who had been victims of sexual assault. All had been seen at the same American hospital, and interviews had been conducted with the child or caregiver. In 1990-91, a researcher managed to trace most of the children. By this time they were between 18 and 31 years old. 38% had no recollection of the events that had caused them to end up in hospital as victims of sexual assault. Of the remainder, 16% said there was a time when they hadn't remembered the abuse. (L. Meyer Williams, "Recall of Childhood Trauma", Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology vol.62 p.1183-4)
One study examined 116 cases of confirmed sexual abuse. In 94% of the cases the offender was convicted, in the other 6% there was medical evidence highly consistent with abuse. In 22% of the cases, the child at some stage recanted the allegation before reaffirming their story. (Sorensen and Snow, "How Children Tell", Child Welfare, vol. lxx, p.3-15)
One survey (cited on http://www.asca.org.au ) said only18% of cases surveyed were reported to the police, and only 8% of the victims pursued court action.
In a self-report study of 561 non-incarcerated sex offenders who were guaranteed confidentiality, the informants disclosed over a quarter of a million completed sexual assaults (Abel et al. 1987, cited in McGregor & Howells 1997).
Studies with long follow-up periods have found that, among some groups of sex offenders, reconvictions for sexual offences continue to occur many years—even decades—after release, albeit in substantially reduced numbers (Grubin & Wingate 1996; Loucks 2002).
In a sample of 402 British prisoners serving sentences for sex offences, 28 were reconvicted for a further sexual offence within four years of release. When previous sexual convictions were taken into account, 27 per cent (n=107) of the 402 sex offenders were found to have at least one previous conviction for a sexual offence. This group included the 28 reconvicted offenders. [In other words, the 28 who were reconvicted within 4 years were already serving their second (at least) sentence.]
In the main, those who recidivate sexually tend to repeat the same type of offence, with the same type of victim.
The range and level of activity of offenders committing sexual assaults against males indicates that they may be the most serious sexual offenders, caring least about the gender and age of the victim, or the nature of the offending behaviour (Ackerley, Soothill & Francis 1998; Soothill et al. 2000; Soothill & Francis 1999).
Note: The above 5 statistics were taken from Recidivism of Sexual Assault Offenders: Rates, Risk Factors and Treatment Efficacy, by Denise Lievore, for the Australian Insitute of Criminology, May 2004, available online at http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/reports/2003-06-recidivism.pdf
One Australian study estimated 28% Australian girls and 9% of Australian boys are sexually exploited by an older person (Goldman, R & J, "Show Me Yours", Penguin Books, Australia)
More facts and figures: http://www.vix.com/pub/men/abuse/clergy.html , http://www.angelfire.com/ri/survivorconnections/scstats1.html (includes breakdown of types of perp) and http://www.thelinkup.com/stats.html
The complete text of a study of sexual abuse of males is at http://www.jimhopper.com/male-ab/
Australian Catholic priests sentenced for sex crimes up to 1999
1. Australian Catholic priests and brothers sentenced since 1993 - 50+
2. Victorian Catholic priests and brothers sentenced since 1994 - 22
3. Number of abuse compensation claims referred to Catholic Church by QC since mid 1996 - 65
(Refs: 1: Broken Rites (The Australian, July 26, 1999); 2: Dr Bernard Barrett (The Age, February 20, 1999); 3: Peter O'Callaghan, QC (Herald Sun, April 19, 1999).

Catholic priests in Melbourne/Australia
1. Number of Catholic priests in Melbourne diocese - 301
2. Average age of Catholic priests in Melbourne diocese - 60
3. Number of men entering Australian seminaries - 27
4. Number of men training at Victorian seminary (Corpus Christi) - 22
5. Number of men entering Victorian seminary (Corpus Christi) - 7
(Refs: 1-5: Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Dr George Pell (The Age, February 20, 1999).
In 1999, the Franciscan order faced a million-dollar compensation bill over claims of sexual abuse by priests. (Geoff Wilkinson, Herald Sun, April 99). Documents obtained by Wilkinson also revealed the Franciscan Province of the Holy Spirit in Australia had net assets in 1998 of $30.35 million.
"According to research conducted using polygraph tests, convicted sex offenders were twice as likely NOT to have experienced sexual abuse as children. In other words, only one in three had been sexually abused as a child. What they had in common in much higher numbers was a pattern of thinking errors that told them that they had a right to do whatever they wanted for their own gratification; that although they molested children, it wasn't really their fault and that the children brought the abuse on themselves." (http://www.efn.org/~terra/article.html )
CHILDREN in Queensland face the greatest risk of sexual abuse when they are aged between 13 and 15. Young males were twice as likely to commit suicide as females, but the overall suicide rate for both sexes aged 0-18 was 7.5 per 100,000 – less than that for adults. (Suicide figures are mentioned here because of the posited high correlation between childhood sexual abuse and later suicide) - Children and Young People in Queensland: A Snapshot, quoted in The Courier Mail, 24/6/2002
There are now three studies about the validity of child abuse allegations made in Family Court cases - two by Professor Thea Brown, of Monash University, and another by Marie Hume, of the Family Court in Adelaide. They have shown that false, frivolous or vindictive allegations accounted for between 2 per cent and 10 per cent of cases. What they looked for was the incidence of abuse allegations substantiated after expert investigation. And what they found was the proportion substantiated in the Family Court mirrored that in the community. However, child abuse, especially sexual abuse, can be difficult to confirm. A very young child, a lack of medical evidence, a lack of witnesses may make it impossible to confirm abuse even if strongly suspected. In Brown's most recent study of 175 abuse allegations made in the Family Court, 80 per cent of stepfathers, and 65 per cent of fathers, were substantiated as perpetrators of sexual abuse. In Hume's 1992 study, which focused on sex abuse allegations, fathers were confirmed as perpetrators in 59 per cent of the cases. (Quoted in Sydney Morning Herald, 8/6/2002) Note: The relevance of these studies is that it is often assumed that false allegations are made in Family Court disputes, which would cause a higher incidence of false allegations than in the community. Thus the figure of genuine allegations in the community would, if anything, be lower than in these studies.

In September 1999, the Dept of Justice in Wisconsin, USA, published the following profile of a typical paedophile:
*Most often an adult male
*Usually married
*Wide range of occupations from unskilled to executive
*Usually is non-violent, has few problems with the law, often is a well respected member of the community.
*Relates better to children than adults
*Socialises with few adults unless they are also paedophiles
*Prefers children in a specific age group
*Prefers males or females but may be bisexual
*May seek employment or volunteer for programs involving children of the age of his preference
*Pursues children for sexual purposes
*May take or collect photos of his victims (either dressed, nude or in sexually explicit acts)
*Collects child erotica and child-adult pornography
*May furnish narcotics to victims to lower inhibitions
*Usually is intelligent enough to recognize he has a problem and that it is severe
*May go to great lengths to conceal illegal activity
*Often rationalises his activities by saying they have a positive impact on the victim -- minimises or denies that any harm was done
*Often portrays the child as the aggressor
*Talks about children in the same manner one would talk about an adult lover or spouse
*May correspond with other paedophiles and/or exchange child pornography
*May seek out organisations/publications that support his sexual beliefs
*Often was molested as a child and frequently seeks out children at the age he was molested.

Butterfly