In this Aug. 6, 1999 file photo, Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, right, poses with his defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky during Penn State Media Day at State College, Pa. Pennsylvania state prosecutors said Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, on charges that he sexually abused eight young men.
(Paul Vathis - AP)
A major child sex abuse cover-up case – that does not involve the Catholic Church.
When the case unfolding at Penn State blew up last week, I have to admit the first people I thought I would hear from those in the Catholic Church who believe their faith gets unfairly tarred on this subject. As so many high-level cases around the world have unfolded in the past decade, these Catholics often ask, rightly: What is the rate of sex abuse in other institutions?
I have former colleagues from my days at The Associated Press who looked into this for their series about sex abuse in the public schools, and I’ve pursued comparative data myself and my sense is that there simply is not comparative data, regardless of what each side says. This is because of the complex and not uniform way public institutions keep crime data and also because so much information about the Catholic Church is not public. I’ve never seen any apples-to-apples comparison that makes the case either way, whether the subject is the rate of abuse or the rate of cover-up.
But I still hear from Catholics occasionally when I write about this subject asking why don’t we write more about other institutions, be they religious or secular.
Right now I’m interested in how, or if, the subject is being discussed differently in the two contexts: two powerful institutions in our culture, the church and athletics, our religious identity and one of our national pastimes.
But the first people I have seen write about this today, in the context of Penn State, are at the largest law firm for survivors of clergy sex abuse, where the authors suggest there is more accountability for Penn State officials than for bishops.
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