Updates

In this country, somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of cases of sexual abuse against kids are committed by other kids. This type of child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable. Waiting until harm has happened, and waiting until somebody has caused harm to intervene, is waiting too long.

Prevention, healing, and justice are all essential in tackling child sexual abuse. Right now, the lion’s share of resources go to important work for justice, with not nearly enough to support survivors and pursue strategies to prevent future abuse. We don’t need to redistribute existing resources, we need more resources.

On the surface, requiring people who have been adjudicated or convicted of sexually abusing children to register with law enforcement seems like a smart way to protect kids and prevent child sexual abuse. Two decades of research tell a different story.

This case's great pain and deep trauma date back to the 1940s and involve more than 150 clergy and staff and many hundreds of children and youth. Those survivors are the face of the critical efforts needed to stop others from experiencing the same harm.