[malakhi]

The statistics for sex abuse shot up after Vatican II.

The statistics for reported sex abuse shot up after Vatican II. Any criminologist will tell you that sex crimes are always underreported. An increase in reports could mean either that there are more cases, or that more victims are coming forward.

[sinkspur]

The statistics for reported sex abuse shot up after Vatican II. Any criminologist will tell you that sex crimes are always underreported. An increase in reports could mean either that there are more cases, or that more victims are coming forward.

Exactly. Those who were abused in the 50s and before are older than 60, or dead, and the likelihood of a senior citizen coming forward now over a 50-year-old sex abuse is extremely remote.

Pederasty is endemic to the helping professions (teaching, coaching, counseling, ministry), and always has been.

[ultima ratio]

"Any criminologist will tell you that sex crimes are always underreported. An increase in reports could mean either that there are more cases, or that more victims are coming forward."

If they are always underreported, then they would have been underreported following Vatican II as well. You can't have it both ways. Why not recognize the obvious--that maybe things are as they seem, that something went haywire after Vatican II? There is no evidence to the contrary.

[saradippity]

Now wait just a minute,the most overreported "crime"ever was a sex crime and it was the number of "date rapes" that college after college and women's groups had to revise downward. and,it wasn't all that long age either.

And another crime involving sex that was very exaggerated was incest and familial sesual abuse. Any divorce lawyer can tell you how often that offense was fabricated to prevent custody. Many men were horribly hurt by those false accusations.

Then there were the witchcraft,satanism,sex abuse charges from children lodged against quite a few day care centers and nursery schools.

There are tomes devoted to "false memories" that caused people to recollect all kinds of "sexual" incidents that never happened.

I only say all of this to cause people to reflect on reality. I am not saying that fabricated reports are common in the scandal in the Church,but to blithely walk by and present as fact "underreporting of sex crimes" is not is not in the interest of truth.