A coalition of victims of abuse and advocates for children are forming to get Massachusetts to change laws to protect children. However, one exchange in the story caught my attention.
- Susan Gallagher of Medford, who in 1998 received a settlement from the Salesians for abuse by the Rev. Frank Nugent, said another goal is to bring greater attention to underreported groups, such as female victims of molester priests. “In the general population, it is well documented that child sexual abuse victims are overwhelmingly female,” she said.
In the general population, yes, but not victims of pervert priests. Those are overwhelmingly boys.
- Noted therapist A.W. “Richard” Sipe has estimated a third of clergy sex abuse victims are girls.
And even that number is high if you take the numbers of the New York Times that I reported on yesterday with any accuracy. Eighty percent of molesters went after boys. And if molesters of boys are more likely to have multiple victims than priests molesting girls—which it appears is the case frm my recollection—then the number of female victims may be much less than even 20 percent.
