SAVI Project,
Madam, - J R O' Hanlon (November 15th) argues that clerical sexual abusers are overwhelmingly homosexual epebophiles (i.e.abusers of young male adolescents) with a minority being heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual paedophiles (i.e. abusers of children aged 13 years or younger).
Evidence from a recent national Irish study of over 3,000 adults (SAVI: Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland) does not support this claim. A total of 39 people (25 men and 14 women) reported abuse by clergy or religious in this study.
The majority of men reported abuse as children: 19 of 25 men (76 per cent) were aged 13 or younger when they were first abused. Of those 19, 13 were aged 10 or less when abused and 4 were aged 11. Five of the six other men were abused between the ages of 14 and 17.
Of the 14 women reporting clerical sexual abuse, 6 cases were paedophile with 3 of these being aged 10 or younger, 3 cases were aged 14-18 and 5 were women in their twenties. Thus 25 of 39 cases (64 per cent) were paedophile; 8 of the others (20 per cent) involved female teenagers or adults; 5 cases (13 per cent) referred to men aged 14-17 and there was case of abuse of an adult man.
These figures show that most acts of clerical sexual abuse in Ireland are paedophile in nature with heterosexual abuse next and a small number of cases which could be classed as epebophile or homosexual. - Yours, etc.
Professor HANNAH McGEE,
SAVI Project,
Department of Psychology,
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,
Dublin 2.