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This document seeks to discuss the effect of Celibacy on Child Sexual abuse numbers. A doctrine held by the Catholic Church, that prevents priests, and brothers from marrying. This document does not link Celibacy directly to abuse, but shows that abuse numbers are high in the Catholic Church accounting for just over 60% of all reported abuses to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse(*2). I put forward the thought that priestly Celibacy may well be a contributing factor to the Catholic Churches high abuse numbers, being one of the main distinguishing features of that religion that differ to other religious groups. I also wish to show that Protestant Churches, have lower abuse numbers, than the Catholic Church, for priestly abuse, based upon their respective portion of the population, this is done to show that Celibacy may be at play in abuse. You will also notice in the case of schools (that are not boarding schools), that abuse numbers between Independent Schools, and Public Schools have similar statistical numbers of abuse victims, meaning there is little difference between the religious, and non-religious portion, suggesting that blanket statement that “religion is to blame for Child Sexual abuse”, may be untrue.
I stated previously that I felt that abuse numbers were higher in the Catholic church due to mandatory Celibacy, to put forward this case I look at the statistics were taken from Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
First we start by showing abuse numbers in the Anglican Church, Australia’s largest Protestant denomination are approximately equal to the percentage of people they service, the Anglican church in the last census held in 2016 (*1) accounted for 13.3% of the population and 14.7% of abuse cases (*2), approximately equal, which you would expect. You would expect the number of cases to be divided evenly, by the percentage of the population they serviced. The denomination that I am a part of The Pentecostal Movement makes up 1% of the population, but accounts for only 37 cases, out of 4029 cases, or 0.91% approximately 1%. In these cases we see a trend, the abuse in these protestant churches, is approximately equal to the percentage of the population they make up, to that level they offend. Yet looking at the Catholic portion of the population it was 22.6% in 2006 (*1) but accounted for 61.8% percent of abuse cases (*2). You would expect the Catholic Church to have its abuse cases to be around 20% but it accounts for 60% of all cases. The catholic church having an extra 40% on top of other similar organizations 2/3 higher in abuse cases. We do see higher instances of Abuse in the Salvation Army accounting for only 0.2% of the population (*1), but having 7.3% cases of abuse (*2), 7.3 per cent told us about perpetrators who were people in religious ministry (1%), the others were, residential care workers (46.4 per cent) or housemasters (20.1 per cent). But what we see here is that the Salvation Army has high abuse rates based upon the type of work they are performing, residential care, and houses. But there is a difference between the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church has 67% of offences by religious workers, where we see the Salvation army only had 7.3% of offences by people in religious ministry, although it is true that the Catholic Church also takes part in similar projects to the Salvation Army, such as orphanages. The breakdown of catholic abuses is shown below:
597 or 32 percent were religious brothers,
572 or 30 percent were priests,
543 or 29 percent were lay people,
96 or 5 percent were religious sisters,
But what I will further show is that abuse numbers are high in general Catholic activities. To do this we will switch to schools.
When we look at schools we see:
Three-quarters (75.9 per cent) said they were abused in non-government schools, of which 73.8 per cent identified a Catholic school and 26.4 per cent identified an Independent school(*3).
In 2016, 14 percent (3.37 million) of Australia's 23.40 million population were school students. Of these, 15 percent attended Independent schools, 21 percent went to Catholic schools and the remaining 64 percent were government school students (*4).
Now we are going to return to the Royal Commissions report on schools (*3). But to do this we need to look at it through two different lenses. Firstly we will present the stats with no alterations, as listed in the Royal Commission report, then we will make a second view with Boarding Schools removed. For the stats do not show a representative sample in their raw view, as Public Schools, are for the most part not boarding schools. Boarding Schools we will see skew the figures to make it look like abuse is extremely low comparatively in Public Schools.
So let’s take a look with boarding schools included. We use both population density, and abuse percentage to determine approximate abuse rates on average.
Independent Schools 20% of cases 15% of population (1.3333 ratio) 30.8%
Public Schools 24% of cases 64% of population (0.375 ratio) 8.67%
Catholic Schools 55% of cases 21% of population (2.619) 60.52%
If we look at the figures with Boarding schools included we see both religious portions appear higher than the public sector in abuse cases. 30% Independent Schools (Including religious schools), 60% catholic, and only 8.6%. If this stat were taken at face value you would think abuse was extremely high in religious organizations as compared to secular organizations, being two times higher.
But let’s remove boarding schools and deal with a basic school.
Almost one in three (30.4 per cent) said they were abused in a boarding school setting, of which 96.8 per cent told us it was a non-government boarding school and 3.2 per cent identified a government boarding school. Of the non-government boarding schools, 57.0 per cent identified a Catholic school and 43.2 per cent identified an Independent school (*3).
29.4272 – Total no- government abuse percentage in boarding schools, 12.7125 – independent school, 16.7146496 – catholic boarding school
0.9728 – Total government boarding school abuse
The Independent school sector is by far the largest provider of boarding schools in Australia, with some 145 schools providing boarding facilities for over 15,500 students. (*4) or 0.469% Because exact numbers of students in boarding schools are hard to find, and include adolescents, we will retain the existing population percentages.
If we look at a standard school (having removed all boarding school cases), we see:
Independent Schools 7.29% of cases 15% of population (0.486 ratio) 18%
Public Schools 23% of cases 64% of population (0.359 ratio) 13%
Catholic Schools 38.28% of cases 21% of population (1.819 ratio) 68.2%
We see that Independent and Public schools come much closer together, suggesting, although the public sector seems slightly better at Child protection, there is not a vast difference to Independent Schools that do not have students living on premises 18% to 13% in favor of public schools.
From these stats we see boarding schools accounts for a large increase in child sexual abuse in Independent Schools. When we remove boarding schools, we see: Independent Schools (non-catholic) is slightly higher than public schools in abuse cases, but not by a large margin 18% of all cases, to the public sector or 13%. Catholic Schools increase in abuse cases to 68% of all cases. This is important to recognize, as religion (in general) is not, in the case of schools, a large separating or driving factor in student abuse. However having removed Boarding Schools, we see the Catholic portion of abuse increases to 68.2%. This suggests that something other than close proximity to children is at play in the abuse numbers in the Catholic Church in a general school environment.
I suggest that the primary difference between the Catholic Religion, and it’s Protestant Independent portion is priestly Celibacy.
*1 Wikipedia - Religion in Australa (Accessed 2021) Religion in Australia - Wikipedia
*2 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Religious Institutions (Accessed 2021) Religious institutions | Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
*3 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Schools (Accessed 2021) Schools | Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
*4 The Independent School Student - A Demographic Profile (Accessed 2021) http://isa.edu.au/wp-content/upload...School-Student-A-Demographic-Profile-2016.pdf
I stated previously that I felt that abuse numbers were higher in the Catholic church due to mandatory Celibacy, to put forward this case I look at the statistics were taken from Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
First we start by showing abuse numbers in the Anglican Church, Australia’s largest Protestant denomination are approximately equal to the percentage of people they service, the Anglican church in the last census held in 2016 (*1) accounted for 13.3% of the population and 14.7% of abuse cases (*2), approximately equal, which you would expect. You would expect the number of cases to be divided evenly, by the percentage of the population they serviced. The denomination that I am a part of The Pentecostal Movement makes up 1% of the population, but accounts for only 37 cases, out of 4029 cases, or 0.91% approximately 1%. In these cases we see a trend, the abuse in these protestant churches, is approximately equal to the percentage of the population they make up, to that level they offend. Yet looking at the Catholic portion of the population it was 22.6% in 2006 (*1) but accounted for 61.8% percent of abuse cases (*2). You would expect the Catholic Church to have its abuse cases to be around 20% but it accounts for 60% of all cases. The catholic church having an extra 40% on top of other similar organizations 2/3 higher in abuse cases. We do see higher instances of Abuse in the Salvation Army accounting for only 0.2% of the population (*1), but having 7.3% cases of abuse (*2), 7.3 per cent told us about perpetrators who were people in religious ministry (1%), the others were, residential care workers (46.4 per cent) or housemasters (20.1 per cent). But what we see here is that the Salvation Army has high abuse rates based upon the type of work they are performing, residential care, and houses. But there is a difference between the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church has 67% of offences by religious workers, where we see the Salvation army only had 7.3% of offences by people in religious ministry, although it is true that the Catholic Church also takes part in similar projects to the Salvation Army, such as orphanages. The breakdown of catholic abuses is shown below:
597 or 32 percent were religious brothers,
572 or 30 percent were priests,
543 or 29 percent were lay people,
96 or 5 percent were religious sisters,
But what I will further show is that abuse numbers are high in general Catholic activities. To do this we will switch to schools.
When we look at schools we see:
Three-quarters (75.9 per cent) said they were abused in non-government schools, of which 73.8 per cent identified a Catholic school and 26.4 per cent identified an Independent school(*3).
In 2016, 14 percent (3.37 million) of Australia's 23.40 million population were school students. Of these, 15 percent attended Independent schools, 21 percent went to Catholic schools and the remaining 64 percent were government school students (*4).
Now we are going to return to the Royal Commissions report on schools (*3). But to do this we need to look at it through two different lenses. Firstly we will present the stats with no alterations, as listed in the Royal Commission report, then we will make a second view with Boarding Schools removed. For the stats do not show a representative sample in their raw view, as Public Schools, are for the most part not boarding schools. Boarding Schools we will see skew the figures to make it look like abuse is extremely low comparatively in Public Schools.
So let’s take a look with boarding schools included. We use both population density, and abuse percentage to determine approximate abuse rates on average.
Independent Schools 20% of cases 15% of population (1.3333 ratio) 30.8%
Public Schools 24% of cases 64% of population (0.375 ratio) 8.67%
Catholic Schools 55% of cases 21% of population (2.619) 60.52%
If we look at the figures with Boarding schools included we see both religious portions appear higher than the public sector in abuse cases. 30% Independent Schools (Including religious schools), 60% catholic, and only 8.6%. If this stat were taken at face value you would think abuse was extremely high in religious organizations as compared to secular organizations, being two times higher.
But let’s remove boarding schools and deal with a basic school.
Almost one in three (30.4 per cent) said they were abused in a boarding school setting, of which 96.8 per cent told us it was a non-government boarding school and 3.2 per cent identified a government boarding school. Of the non-government boarding schools, 57.0 per cent identified a Catholic school and 43.2 per cent identified an Independent school (*3).
29.4272 – Total no- government abuse percentage in boarding schools, 12.7125 – independent school, 16.7146496 – catholic boarding school
0.9728 – Total government boarding school abuse
The Independent school sector is by far the largest provider of boarding schools in Australia, with some 145 schools providing boarding facilities for over 15,500 students. (*4) or 0.469% Because exact numbers of students in boarding schools are hard to find, and include adolescents, we will retain the existing population percentages.
If we look at a standard school (having removed all boarding school cases), we see:
Independent Schools 7.29% of cases 15% of population (0.486 ratio) 18%
Public Schools 23% of cases 64% of population (0.359 ratio) 13%
Catholic Schools 38.28% of cases 21% of population (1.819 ratio) 68.2%
We see that Independent and Public schools come much closer together, suggesting, although the public sector seems slightly better at Child protection, there is not a vast difference to Independent Schools that do not have students living on premises 18% to 13% in favor of public schools.
From these stats we see boarding schools accounts for a large increase in child sexual abuse in Independent Schools. When we remove boarding schools, we see: Independent Schools (non-catholic) is slightly higher than public schools in abuse cases, but not by a large margin 18% of all cases, to the public sector or 13%. Catholic Schools increase in abuse cases to 68% of all cases. This is important to recognize, as religion (in general) is not, in the case of schools, a large separating or driving factor in student abuse. However having removed Boarding Schools, we see the Catholic portion of abuse increases to 68.2%. This suggests that something other than close proximity to children is at play in the abuse numbers in the Catholic Church in a general school environment.
I suggest that the primary difference between the Catholic Religion, and it’s Protestant Independent portion is priestly Celibacy.
*1 Wikipedia - Religion in Australa (Accessed 2021) Religion in Australia - Wikipedia
*2 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Religious Institutions (Accessed 2021) Religious institutions | Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
*3 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – Schools (Accessed 2021) Schools | Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
*4 The Independent School Student - A Demographic Profile (Accessed 2021) http://isa.edu.au/wp-content/upload...School-Student-A-Demographic-Profile-2016.pdf
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