There where’s the proof? My experience as a prosecutor and defense attorney shows just the opposite. I don’t have to rely on anecdotal and second hand evidence. Did some get off easy? Sure and those make the news but for every one of those there are dozens who went to jail for a long time. I know because I sent many there. Why can you cite nothing to back up your overarching claim? I need more authority than your own imagination.
You’re from Indiana, right? Probably that was one of the more conservative areas. I lived in California, the Pacific Northwest and New York State during these horrible decades. And believe me, sentencing was scandalous. You may be too young to remember this - but I’m in my 60s and lived through it. I had young children at the time and I could not believe how lax the justice system was in dealing with pedophiles.
If you are making these charges, it’s up to you to prove them. The Church was doing exactly what the secular justice system was doing at that time.
As I have said, I think that was wrong and the Church should have relied on its old system (monastic jails, removal from the priesthood, etc.). But after Vatican II, the Church ceased to behave as the Church, something very much praised by the New York Times at that moment.
And this is the result.