Only if they are rational people seeking to understand, Dan. Irrational people want to find a whipping boy to blame things on.

The Vatican has chosen to ignore the research that already exisits.

Here's an experts opinion on the subject of pedophilia.

The Work of Dr. A. Nicholas Groth

A. Nicholas Groth is a pioneer in the scientific study of sexual offenders against women and children, who has treated over 3000 child molesters over the course of two decades.12 A former director of the Sex Offender Program at the Connecticut Department of Corrections, Groth is the author of Men Who Rape: Psychology of the Offender,13 a work widely regarded as a classic textbook on the psychology of sexual violence. In his work, Groth has found that approximately one‑third of all cases of child molestation involve an underage boy and an adult male14, a statistic which has been used incessantly by certain conservative activist groups in an effort to prove that homosexuals are disproportionately responsible for acts of child molestation. However, Groth explicitly states that it is a myth that men who molest boys are homosexual.

According to Groth, child molesters can be divided into two types: “fixated” and “regressed.” The fixated offender is attracted primarily to children and has little or no interest in adult relationships; such a person is known in clinical terms as a “pedophile.” The regressed offender is interested in and capable of adult sexual relationships; however, this person may on occasion regress to sexual encounters with children, often as a result of difficulties and frustration in his adult relationships.15

Groth writes that the fixated offender, or pedophile, tends to select boys more often than girls, but for reasons having nothing to do with homosexuality:

In general, fixated child molesters are drawn to children sexually in that they identify with the child and appear in some ways to want to remain children themselves. It is for this reason that the trend for fixated offenders is to target boys as victims. . . . They see the boy as a projected representation of themselves. They feel themselves to be more child than adult – more boys than men – and therefore find themselves more comfortable (especially sexually) in the company of children. . . .16

Groth stresses that “these same individuals are uninterested in adult homosexual relationships. In fact, they frequently express a strong sexual aversion to adult males, reporting that what they find attractive about the immature boy are his feminine features and the absence of secondary sexual characteristics such as body hair and muscles.”17 The second type of offender, the regressed offender, is predominantly heterosexual. However, he may temporarily turn to boys or girls as a result of complications in his adult relations.18 Although regressed offenders are more likely to choose girls than boys as victims, writes Groth, what attracts the regressed male offender to boys are the feminine characteristics of pre‑ pubescents. Groth found no cases of boy molestation in which the offender had an adult homosexual orientation. Concludes Groth,

Homosexuality and homosexual pedophilia are not synonymous. In fact, it may be that these two orientations are mutually exclusive, the reason being that the homosexual male is sexually attracted to masculine qualities whereas the heterosexual male is sexually attracted to feminine characteristics, and the sexually immature child’s qualities are more feminine than masculine. . . . The child offender who is attracted to and engaged in adult sexual relationships is heterosexual. It appears, therefore, that the adult heterosexual male constitutes a greater sexual risk to underage children than does the adult homosexual male.19

http://www.internationalorder.org/scanda…

The last paragraph said it best from #2.

Homosexuality and homosexual pedophilia are not synonymous. In fact, it may be that these two orientations are mutually exclusive, the reason being that the homosexual male is sexually attracted to masculine qualities whereas the heterosexual male is sexually attracted to feminine characteristics, and the sexually immature child’s qualities are more feminine than masculine. . . . The child offender who is attracted to and engaged in adult sexual relationships is heterosexual. It appears, therefore, that the adult heterosexual male constitutes a greater sexual risk to underage children than does the adult homosexual male.

I hope changing is coming to the Vatican.

Slam dunk, Kim!

I don't have voluminous research to refer to (like Kim), but it's always seemed to me that these are crimes of opportunity. Like their brethren youth pastors, priests are around young, vulnerable people who look upon them as someone they can trust. It's never really surprised me that some percentage of those people can't be trusted, and, in fact, abuse that trust.

I don't think it's a "gay" thing, any more than I think it's a "hetero" thing or even a "Christian" thing. Maybe it's the ex-cop in me talking, but I came to the conclusion long ago that there are a lot of scumballs in this world, and it cuts across all genders, classes, religions, and just about anything else you can think of.

Could just be that there are so many homosexual priests that a) it's not a predictor of likelihood to abuse, b) the vast majority of abuses cases are against boys, and c) the vast majority of abusers were homosexuals.

@6 (kinaidos), how do you figure that most of the abusers were gay? The vast majority of pedophiles are straight, even the ones that abuse young boys.

People who conclude that that adult men who molest boys must be homosexuals are the same people that believe rape and sexual assault are related to sexual desire (and the rape victim elicited that response). It's not - it's about power and entitlement.

The conflation of homosexuality with pedophilia is the single most vile and pernicious piece of slander that anti-gay bigots level against gays. It's the thing that is most likely to send me into a crucible hot rage.

@6:

This is the same fallacy being perpetuated by the Church, namely that, because the pedophiles in their midst target boys almost exclusively they are therefore homosexual, and that's simply not the case at all. As Kim points out, adult gay males are attracted to other adult gay males (who probably have little difficulty finding each other in their relatively closed social tructure), and are NOT attracted to prepubescent boys.

And I don't know if this is something that's ever been studied amongst this particular group, but it occurs to me that most priest pedophilia is directed at young boys for the very simple reason that that's the group of children with which they come into contact most frequently. Females, regardless of age, are pretty much locked out of nearly all positions and functions within the Church, so for a pederast boys are going to provide pretty much the ONLY target of opportunity.

I don't know if this would change were it a situation where girls were equally accessible as boys, and frankly I doubt there's any decent person out there who would WANT to put that theory to the test, but I do think it's an aspect of the issue that might have some bearing.

@11 - "And I don't know if this is something that's ever been studied amongst this particular group, but it occurs to me that most priest pedophilia is directed at young boys for the very simple reason that that's the group of children with which they come into contact most frequently."

That was one of the conclusions of the study - priest who were pedophiles simply had more access to boys than they did girls, especially before 1990 or so when girls were allowed to become altar servers.

@10-possibly the reason it is done is because the guilty parties want to cast suspicions as far away from themselves as they can, so the cry goes up "It's teh gays molesting the little boys!"

@11-having worked in children's ministry (not Catholic, though) for well over a decade, I tried very hard to have all-female staff working with children, for the single fact that males are statistically far more likely to harm a child than females are. When we had male staff, we paired them with a non-relative female staff person to ensure there was a watch dog in the room.

Not that I doubted my staff...we did background checks and did interviews with each, actually asking the hard questions ("Have you ever molested or abused a child? Would you? Why do you want to work with children?"). And all of them were fine with it-they wanted the kids to be safe as much as I did. (Don't want to paint all males as molesters.)

I think what Kim cited above is important to note--there is an identity issue when males molest boys, more so than just an opportunistic grab. I think when we see the youth pastor watch, you tend to see that equal-access issue, and more girls appear to be the target of molestation at that point. It moves from being a fixation to being an opportunity to abuse power.

There is another issue at play...I think culturally we have been lax in teaching boys that it's OK to come forward if someone molests them. Girls are taught more consistently that if someone touches them inappropriately or makes them do something they don't want to do, they can tell us. I don't think we've done that as much for boys, and therefore boys are more ashamed to report it.

Virtual high five, Baconcat.

An interesting side note-- The Boy Scouts of America came to this same conclusion that the RCC is having so much trouble accepting, a generation ago, despite the homophobia of their leadership and major financial backers.

Banning gays didn't help much when incident after incident was perpetrated by trusted married adult males. So the BSA pioneered new policies that severely limited opportunity for abuse that are familiar to most people working with children today. Simple things such as never allowing volunteers or staffers to be in situations alone with children, in a closed office etc. All outings and camping trips had to be with at least two unrelated adults, never with just one adult, etc etc.

This greatly reduced the abuse cases for the Boy Scouts in the US. Though they continue their gay ban for their own backward reasons, they never claim that the ban is to protect kids from pedophiles. The RCC would be in less trouble now if they'd recognized this back in the 80's when the BSA did. Yet the RCC continues to refuse to implement the same child protection policies that nearly every youth organization has practiced for a generation.

"Despite the fact that most of the victims of clergy sex abuse were boys"

Hmm, I find that to be contradictory to the study, unless the sexual abuses have been committed by.. nuns.

This study is going to throw a serious wrench in the Vatican's efforts to pin the whole clergy sex abuse scandals on teh gays.

Unless you just bury the reports, or (if they must come to light) ignore them, dismiss them as the world of "evil libruls," whatever.

The conservative movement has perfected the blinders needed to push their agenda despite the intrusion of such inconvenient things as "facts" or "research."

@16--Congrats Loveschild! You've just graphically demonstrated the first of two driving causes behind the perpetuation of false doctrine that fucks up Christianity for the rest of us: low reading comprehension.

Know what #2 is? anybody? anybody?

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congre…

Unless what's happening here is nothing short of some trying to instigate a schism a la what has been done in the Episcopalian church, and that does seems to be the theme here on Slog with this an the priest defamation 'outing' thread, the Vatican and the Pope are the ones who oversees the behavior of their clergy.

White noise.

@19--WTF? Your arguments, Loveschild, while ill-reasoned, have always at least been cogent to the point. Your last post was totally batshit. Have you finally completely lost it?

I had to pay a visit. I have my name 'joe lane' in a Google search and was unaware I posted cartoons [grins]

Lively discussion! :)

I am very uncomfortable with this notion that people who are attracted to men, yet don't identify as gay, are not gay. That is bad. Most of the abused children were above the age of puberty. What we have here is not pedophilia, but a bunch of sexually repressed, self-hating gay men who selfishly took advantage of what was available.

So, 23, if adult men who don't identify as gay because they're sexually repressed and molest boys are gay, then what are adult men who aren't sexually repressed and identify as straight who molest girls?

@23--A straight man who goes after 13 year old girls is still a pedophile.