Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2003 20:53:57 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: baseballs, priests, and newsgroups
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

>twhite8 at cox.net 01/06/03 08:41PM

[lots of stuff deleted]

>It depends entirely on what you mean by "molestation."  If you use that
>word to describe any form of sexual contact, a large percentage of =
children
>of both sexes have been molested -- mostly by each other.   But if you
>restrict "molestation" to adults having sexual contact with children, the
>percentages go down significantly.   An additional problem is the
>definition of "child."  Although both are regarded as children, an 8 year
>old and a 16 year old are vastly different and so are those adults who
>would target them.  I suspect the majority of women who were molested as
>children were the victims of fathers, uncles or older brothers -- members
>of their own families -- and that the molestation probably began on or =
near
>puberty.
>
>Nor are Catholic priests the only clergy to molest children -- it's just
>that the Catholic Church has a better institutionalized Old Boy network
>with which to cover it up and perpetuate it.   That creates the illusion
>that this sort of behavior is more widespread in the Catholic Church.   =
In
>fact, you'll find a lot of it in Baptist churches of both the black and
>white persuasions.    (And others too, of course.)  And if you check out
>the "rogue" Mormon sects run by aging patriarchs with a half-dozen wives,
>you'll find the youngest "wives" are in their early teens....

One of the university presses I rep - Northeastern University Press - has =
just published a book on sexual abuse in the Jewish community.   The book =
is SHINE THE LIGHT: Sexual Abuse and Healing in the Jewish Community by =
Rachel Lev, ISBN: 1555535348.

mjw