To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 01:22:36 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] Re: baseballs, priests, and newsgroups
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

On Mon, 6 Jan 2003 20:41:39 -0500 "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net> writes:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ronkean at juno.com>
...some womens' rights
> groups have claimed that a large percentage of women were molested as
> children.
>
> 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.

My recollection is that the claim was that one third of girls had been
'molested' before attaining adulthood, and I had assumed that
'molestation' implied molestation by adults.  But now that you mention
it, molestation would include sexual contact with a child below some
arbitrary age (the age of consent) so long as the other party is
significantly older, whether or not an adult, e.g. a 17 year old and a 12
year old, as well as any non-consensual sex involving children.  But the
object of the speculation was to determine what percentage of men are
child molestors, to compare with the evident percentage of Catholic
priests who have molested.  So I guess it doesn't really matter what age
the molestor is, except that perhaps a man who had not molested for many
years might be regarded as a 'former' child molestor.

Finding a proper definition of molestation is not easy, since each case
is different.  Some 15 year old girls are sexually precocious, and go out
of their way to tempt or seduce men.  Sometimes the girl may have
blackmail in mind.  In some circumstances, the man might get more
sympathy than the girl, though there may be little doubt about the man
being legally guilty.

... 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.
>

That is a relevant point because molestation within a family is regarded
rather differently than molestion by priests or other authority figures,
or by random individuals outside the family.  Family molestation is not
seen as much of a threat outside the family.  Given that, the figures put
out by womens' rights groups on the percentage of women who were
victimized as children would be of little use in estimating the
percentage of men who are child molestors outside the family.

...  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....
>

Of course men having sex within marriage with their own 'child bride',
where legal, is not legally molestation (ignoring the polygamy issue).  I
think it was mentioned in some press reports a year or two ago that it is
actually legal in Maryland for a girl to marry as young as 14, with
parental consent.

As for the Catholic Church not having a monopoly on child molestation
scandals, there have been some scandals in Canada revolving around
schools run by religious denominations at government expense, for
indigenous students.  Some of the schools were run by denominations other
than Roman Catholic.  Most of those schools no longer exist, and the
molestation alleged was in the 1970s, or earlier.

Ron Kean

.

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