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PaulS · 12-02-2022, 09:01 AM

a counter point article - prob. written by someone with the opposite agenda.

https://www.reddit.com/r/excatholic/...priests_thing/

The “teachers abuse more kids than priests” thing is bull#^&#^&#^&#^&
Sexual Abuse
Someone mentioned this here in another thread, and I was interested because literally today someone on Reddit had parroted this exact talking point to me. (One high-profile example: https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/04/08/se...-than-priests/ )

So I decided to look into it a little.

If you Google anything related to “teachers vs priests abuse” or similar words, you’ll get a bunch of articles by Catholic publications (or by Catholic opinion authors who are rephrasing statements put out by Catholic institutions). Even if you look closely at these pro-Catholic articles though the figures don’t add up:

No empirical data exists that suggests that Catholic clerics sexually abuse minors at a level higher than clerics from other religious traditions or from other groups of men who have ready access and power over children (e.g., school teachers, coaches).

(That’s from the first article that usually comes up when you Google the subject, https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/b...-abuse-fiction)

Which makes it look like the numbers are the same, except that he is referring to men, and over 75% of teachers in public schools are female. Obviously there are female abusers, but they are more rare than male ones, so statistically a public school is still safer.

Or this one:

”The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/has-med...use-in-school/

Literally nothing given there to back that up, but even so, it doesn’t mention the fact that there are close to 200 times as many public school employees in the US as there are priests. Even if you are generous and narrow it down to teachers (discounting people like teacher’s aides and support staff who also have access to kids) the number is still around 100 to 1. So even if you are super generous with the numbers and take them at their word then it only comes up even, not 100 times worse like they’re implying.

Edit: I think they might have got the "100 times worse" number from the lady quoted in this article (https://www.edweek.org/leadership/se...inized/2004/03) who literally in the same article admits that her numbers are probably bull#^&#^&#^&#^&

Ms. Shakeshaft acknowledged that the accuracy of such comparisons might be thrown off by any number of factors, including undercounting of youngsters abused by priests. But that uncertainty only underscores the need for better research on the prevalence of sexual misconduct in the schools, she argued.

Most of the other stuff I found was just vague bull#^&#^&#^&#^&, more misleading stats (comparing actual reported clerical abuse rates to general estimates of “percentage of men who are predators”) and more whining about how unfairly they’d been treated by the media.

Anyway my point isn’t that teachers do not abuse kids (we need to be wary of predators in any field that allows access to children), just that Catholics are in love with this #^&#^&#^&#^&ing talking point even though it’s based on a bunch of misleading bull#^&#^&#^&#^&.

12-02-2022, 09:01 AM	#88
PaulS Registered User iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 10,204	a counter point article - prob. written by someone with the opposite agenda. https://www.reddit.com/r/excatholic/...priests_thing/ The “teachers abuse more kids than priests” thing is bull#^&#^&#^&#^& Sexual Abuse Someone mentioned this here in another thread, and I was interested because literally today someone on Reddit had parroted this exact talking point to me. (One high-profile example: https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/04/08/se...-than-priests/ ) So I decided to look into it a little. If you Google anything related to “teachers vs priests abuse” or similar words, you’ll get a bunch of articles by Catholic publications (or by Catholic opinion authors who are rephrasing statements put out by Catholic institutions). Even if you look closely at these pro-Catholic articles though the figures don’t add up: No empirical data exists that suggests that Catholic clerics sexually abuse minors at a level higher than clerics from other religious traditions or from other groups of men who have ready access and power over children (e.g., school teachers, coaches). (That’s from the first article that usually comes up when you Google the subject, https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/b...-abuse-fiction) Which makes it look like the numbers are the same, except that he is referring to men, and over 75% of teachers in public schools are female. Obviously there are female abusers, but they are more rare than male ones, so statistically a public school is still safer. Or this one: ”The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/has-med...use-in-school/ Literally nothing given there to back that up, but even so, it doesn’t mention the fact that there are close to 200 times as many public school employees in the US as there are priests. Even if you are generous and narrow it down to teachers (discounting people like teacher’s aides and support staff who also have access to kids) the number is still around 100 to 1. So even if you are super generous with the numbers and take them at their word then it only comes up even, not 100 times worse like they’re implying. Edit: I think they might have got the "100 times worse" number from the lady quoted in this article (https://www.edweek.org/leadership/se...inized/2004/03) who literally in the same article admits that her numbers are probably bull#^&#^&#^&#^& Ms. Shakeshaft acknowledged that the accuracy of such comparisons might be thrown off by any number of factors, including undercounting of youngsters abused by priests. But that uncertainty only underscores the need for better research on the prevalence of sexual misconduct in the schools, she argued. Most of the other stuff I found was just vague bull#^&#^&#^&#^&, more misleading stats (comparing actual reported clerical abuse rates to general estimates of “percentage of men who are predators”) and more whining about how unfairly they’d been treated by the media. Anyway my point isn’t that teachers do not abuse kids (we need to be wary of predators in any field that allows access to children), just that Catholics are in love with this #^&#^&#^&#^&ing talking point even though it’s based on a bunch of misleading bull#^&#^&#^&#^&.