Friday, August 20, 2010

Did World War II Play A Part In the Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis

I am doing another post on relating to this. See A Good Article On the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis

Again let me quote this:
In an article published in Psychology Today, Dr. Tom Plante of the National Review Board (NRB), writes:“Although the stories are horrific to hear, they are almost never about incidents that occurred since the late 1980s. Incidents of abuse in the past 20-25 years are quite rare compared to incidents during the ’60s and ’70s. This is also true for other groups such as school teachers. Incidents since the 2002 crisis in the U.S.A. unfolded are especially rare.”

Ok lets examine that. We of course do not know the levels of sexual abuse in past centuries. I suspect there were increases and decreases. It has always struck me in the anti Catholic literature of the 1700's and especially the 1800's that anti Catholics rarely bring up sexual abuse of Children. The only claim they bring is that Priests are molesting WIVES IN THE CONFESSIONAL!! One would think with all the Protestants boys attending Catholic schools that would have got out. It appears the Protestant Jefferson Davis survived Catholic Boarding school without being buggered.

Now why would it appear that we had an increase in sex abuse in the 60's and 70's time period in the Church and in the secular world.

It appears to me that we are dealing with men that many no doubt suffered the horrors of warfare in World War II.

In World War II colleges had few men. The nations men were mobilized and at war. A typical Catholic Male would have got out of the Service in 1945/46. He would have to attend 4 years of college and then 4 to 6 years of Seminary. So these men are busting on the priesthood scene about1955 or 56.

Could it be that the horrors of war in some cases twisted these people. Is sexual abuse the result of post traumatic stress syndrome exhibited in a minority in the worst possible way? I can't think of a common event most men of this time period would have shared in common besides that.

Again I would like to the data the above magazine is referencing as to cases in both the secular and Church context.

Again I am just throwing this out there. Why the increase and why do we start to see decreases in the 80's?

We shall never be able to have the data I suppose but it would be interesting to know if sexual abuse in a community went up as a whole when after that community was participating in massive war.

Again I am just throwing that out there because I am still baffled at why we see decreases in these incidents around the 80's

If this data is correct it appears something went horribly wrong in the 40's and early 50's. What was it? Seems it would be important to find out.

2 comments:

JohnB said...

A review down through the centuries will show that this has been a problem in the church since at least the year 400.

Do some research - there are literally hundreds of sites which carry info on this http://www.iconbusters.com/iconbusters/htm/sex_crimes/lechery/current-lechery3.htm#_ftn16

This clip will give you a quick look down the centuries in one of the best researched pieces on this issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ1_aQz6IuU

James H said...

I do agree that this has happend in the Church before . However it seems to have peaks and then have periods of where the problem is not nearly as severe.

In other words there are timje periods where we hear about ti. Then others it appears not to be a problem.

Of course there could be a lot of factors.

I am just curious why we start seeing declines in the 80's