[aMorePerfectUnion]

You make a great point. I have no idea... and I’d only be speculating on how or why a parent would do it.

Someone told me a story last year (and I’ve forgotten who), of being touched by a priest in an inappropriate way as a kid. He went home and told his dad. The dad and one or two of his brothers when to visit the priest and apparently roughed him up pretty good and warned him.

[Campion]

Which is how things used to be done, short of getting the police involved. And the police would look the other way, too. "You got what's comin' to ya, creep!"

Of course, child abusers almost always go after fatherless kids. (They're evil, not stupid.)