Reporting Rates
Sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes, with 54% still being left unreported.
What happens to Rapists When They are Caught and Prosecuted?
54% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police, according to a statistical average of the past 5 years. Those rapists, of course, never spend a day in prison. Factoring in unreported rapes, only about 3% of rapists ever serve a day in jail. http://rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-rates
Testimony Begins In Child Sex-Abuse Trial For Philadelphia Catholic Priests, Archdiocese
By MARYCLAIRE DALE 03/27/12
PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors aired dozens of confidential church documents in court Tuesday to try to prove the Philadelphia archdiocese routinely buried complaints that priests were molesting children.
Monsignor William Lynn is the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. charged with endangering children by keeping accused priests in parish work.
The letters and memos read in court Tuesday centered on now-defrocked priest Edward Avery. Avery, known as the Smiling Padre, adopted six Hmong children and moonlighted as a disc jockey at parties and nightclubs throughout his three-decade church career.
According to the documents, a medical student told the archdiocese in 1992 that Avery had molested him after a DJ gig when the priest and the high school freshman were drinking heavily at a West Philadelphia nightclub. It happened again at age 19 when the two shared a motel bed on a ski trip to Vermont with Avery's brother, he said.
Avery denied the allegations to Lynn, but then said they "could" have happened. A four-day evaluation at a church-owned hospital showed he may be bipolar and have alcohol and psycho-sexual problems. Avery was admitted to St. John Vianney in Downingtown for nearly a year of sex therapy and mental health treatment.
Avery's parishioners were told that their outgoing, energetic pastor was on a "health leave" but heard no mention of the abuse allegation. Lynn's lawyers said the documents show that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua gave those orders.
St. John Vianney never diagnosed Avery as a pedophile but said he should not be around adolescents or work as a DJ.
Lynn next recommended that Avery go to a Philadelphia parish with a tough pastor, although that parish had a school attached. Bevilacqua instead sent Avery to work as a hospital chaplain, with residency at St. Jerome's Parish. The northeast Philadelphia parish was home to many of the city's police and firefighters and had an elementary school.
Avery, 69, admitted last week that he sexually assaulted a fifth-grader there in 1999, forcing the altar boy to strip naked after Mass in the church sacristy. Instead of going on trial with Lynn, Avery pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and conspiracy and will serve 2 1/2 to five years in prison.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/philly-sex-abuse-case_n_1381982.html
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