Statistics on Child Abuse in the catholic church

[Shaedys]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236096 (referencing: http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0405/p01s01-ussc.html & http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/12/us/presbyterians-adopt-guidelines-to-curb-sex-misconduct-by-clergy.html )
Does anyone know any numbers on sexual abuse and by catholic priests or other religious leaders?
Someone told me that catholic priests don't have a higher rate of pedophilia then the average population and with the recent controversies going on I figured someone here might have gotten to the bottom of it.

 

[Giliell]

No idea
But that's not the centre of the problem
Don't get this next sentence wrong: The problem is not that there are pedophile priests.
There are pedophiles in the general population, so we should expect pedophiles in any subgroup as well. Groups that work with children usually have a higher proportions because of course they seek their prey
The problem is that those cases were covered and nothing was done to protect other children.

 

[borrofburi]

The rate of pedophiles is less a revealing statistic than the rate of actual abuse. You protect the pedophiles and keep allowing them to abuse, your abuse rates probably skyrocket.

 

[Demojen]

lol@the request.

I don't mean to seem callous but I have difficulty seeing these stats reflecting any true numbers, since we all know only a fraction of the victims will have put themselves through the embarassment of admitting it even happened.

Any pedos here who are actively molesting kids ?
Lets start a list and write statistics....

See what I mean?

However it's worth noting that these sorts of statistics aren't impossible to get, just incredibly difficult. I'd suggest looking into psych research projects being overseen by universities or research facilities. I don't know personally.

We could start drawing up statistics here, but how many would be willing to admit that they were molested?