Forgotten Study: Abuse in School 100 Times Worse than by Priests

[TheResearcher]

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/arc...0/apr/10040101

"In the last several weeks such a quantity of ink has been spilled in newspapers across the globe about the priestly sex abuse scandals, that a casual reader might be forgiven for thinking that Catholic priests are the worst and most common perpetrators of child sex abuse.

But according to Charol Shakeshaft, the researcher of a little-remembered 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education, "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.""

[Fang]

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/arc...0/apr/10040101

"In the last several weeks such a quantity of ink has been spilled in newspapers across the globe about the priestly sex abuse scandals, that a casual reader might be forgiven for thinking that Catholic priests are the worst and most common perpetrators of child sex abuse.

But according to Charol Shakeshaft, the researcher of a little-remembered 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education, "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.""

Darnit Researcher, you just ruined a good argument with facts!

[Bmoreteacher]

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/arc...0/apr/10040101

"In the last several weeks such a quantity of ink has been spilled in newspapers across the globe about the priestly sex abuse scandals, that a casual reader might be forgiven for thinking that Catholic priests are the worst and most common perpetrators of child sex abuse.

But according to Charol Shakeshaft, the researcher of a little-remembered 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education, "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.""

The difference, however, is that the Catholic Church as an organization has attempted to hide thousands of abusers in its ranks over its lifetime.

[slapshot]

Did anybody read the actual study, rather than rely on the interpretations from a religious leaning organization (clearly trying to deflect)??

I bet not.

http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research...iew/report.pdf

I read quite a bit of it, and basically, this study attempts to string together findings from a multitude of different studies, some of them in the UK and Canada.

I read NOTHING in the report that says it's 100X more prevalent, than the recent scandal involving Catholic priests. Nothing. But, even if that were true, there's three points that were not mentioned:

(1) There are more than 50,000,000 public school kids. The number of kids who were exposed to Priests, is a small fraction of this number. Not to mention that the molestation is proportional to the number of adults (see #2). So, not only are there a lot more students in the pubs, there are also a lot more adults that work there.

(2) The study concludes that only 18% of these sexual assaults were conducted by teachers. The rest came from anyone who worked in the school system, from bus drivers (15%) to guards (8%), coaches (15%), to those serving food in the cafeteria (10%).

(3) While all the cases of Catholic priests involved with under age molestation of children, the aforementioned study of public schools, includes everything from molestation, to touching, to verbal sexual comments. Everything.

[TheResearcher]

Did anybody read the actual study, rather than rely on the interpretations from a religious leaning organization (clearly trying to deflect)??

I bet not.

http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research...iew/report.pdf

I read quite a bit of it, and basically, this study attempts to string together findings from a multitude of different studies, some of them in the UK and Canada.

I read NOTHING in the report that says it's 100X more prevalent, than the recent scandal involving Catholic priests. Nothing. But, even if that were true, there's three points that were not mentioned:

(1) There are more than 50,000,000 public school kids. The number of kids who were exposed to Priests, is a small fraction of this number. Not to mention that the molestation is proportional to the number of adults (see #2). So, not only are there a lot more students in the pubs, there are also a lot more adults that work there.

(2) The study concludes that only 18% of these sexual assaults were conducted by teachers. The rest came from anyone who worked in the school system, from bus drivers (15%) to guards (8%), coaches (15%), to those serving food in the cafeteria (10%).

(3) While all the cases of Catholic priests involved with under age molestation of children, the aforementioned study of public schools, includes everything from molestation, to touching, to verbal sexual comments. Everything.

You lost your bet.
Also, the "100 times" statement was not from the report. If you read the article, you will discover that it is the interpretation of the data by the report's author.

[Calamari]

Did anybody read the actual study, rather than rely on the interpretations from a religious leaning organization (clearly trying to deflect)??

I bet not.

http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research...iew/report.pdf

I read quite a bit of it, and basically, this study attempts to string together findings from a multitude of different studies, some of them in the UK and Canada.

I read NOTHING in the report that says it's 100X more prevalent, than the recent scandal involving Catholic priests. Nothing. But, even if that were true, there's three points that were not mentioned:

(1) There are more than 50,000,000 public school kids. The number of kids who were exposed to Priests, is a small fraction of this number. Not to mention that the molestation is proportional to the number of adults (see #2). So, not only are there a lot more students in the pubs, there are also a lot more adults that work there.

(2) The study concludes that only 18% of these sexual assaults were conducted by teachers. The rest came from anyone who worked in the school system, from bus drivers (15%) to guards (8%), coaches (15%), to those serving food in the cafeteria (10%).

(3) While all the cases of Catholic priests involved with under age molestation of children, the aforementioned study of public schools, includes everything from molestation, to touching, to verbal sexual comments. Everything.

More shoddy research from the "researcher."

[slapshot]

You lost your bet.
Also, the "100 times" statement was not from the report. If you read the article, you will discover that it is the interpretation of the data by the report's author.

As I said, I read nothing in the report that makes that claim. I stand by my statement.

Anything said outside the report, that's not presented with supportable analysis and documentation (for peer review), is short of professional fraud. Without an analysis of how she arrived at such a conclusion, her claim (outside the study) that she thinks it could be a factor of 100X more is pure hyperbole, and certainly unprofessional.

But I guess it goes a long way towards this author trying to rekindle interest in her "long forgotten" study? I wonder why it's been "long forgotten"? Maybe because her study is really not a study, after all, but simply a collection of reports, findings and data from other people. Her ""study" is an anthology. It draws no conclusions - at least none that I could find. It clearly does not address any of the mitigating points I raised in my previous post. It's "long forgotten" because the study is woefully incomplete.

All that said, I don't discount the possibility that her claim is correct. But that needs to be taken in context of the three points I mentioned in post #4. Much more work is needed.