The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) authorized and paid for the study of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and deacons that led to this report. This was in line with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (Charter), which was unanimously adopted by the USCCB at its meeting in June 2002. The Charter called for many things to be done to stop minors from being abused in the Catholic Church. Article 9 of the Charter called for the creation of a lay group called the National Review Board. One of its jobs was to order a descriptive study of the nature and scope of the problem of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. So, the Board asked John Jay College of Criminal Justice to do a study like this. The College put together a group of experienced researchers with knowledge in forensic psychology, criminology, and human behavior. They then worked with the Board to come up with a way to do the study that would meet the requirements. The first data was collected in March 2003, and the last was collected in February 2004. This report's data comes from surveys given by 195 dioceses, which are made up of 98% of all diocesan priests in the US, and 140 religious communities, which are made up of about 60% of all religious communities and 80% of all religious priests. What was asked of the study was to: 1. Look into how many and what kinds of claims were made against Catholic priests between 1950 and 2002 for sexually abusing children under the age of 18. 2. Get details about the people who are said to have abused, such as their official church position, age, the number of victims, how the church and the police have responded to the abuse claims, and any other information you can find about them. 3. Gather details about the alleged victims' personal traits, their relationship with the alleged abusers, the type of abuse that happened, and when the allegations were made. 4. Gather information about how much the abuse cost the Church in money. The information for this study comes from three surveys: 1. A profile of each diocese that includes information about the diocese's region and size, as well as the total number of allegations and the total amount of money spent on those allegations. 2. The second step was to look through church records for each priest who had been accused of abuse. 3. A look through the church's records to find out who the alleged abuse victims are and what kind of abuse they say they experienced. As a result of the questions and messages we got from the dioceses, eparchies, and religious communities, we think that these data show a sincere and honest effort to provide complete and accurate information about abuse claims made to church authorities, even though the surveys were complicated and it was hard to find relevant church records. Because the abuse claims at the heart of this report are so sensitive, a lot of work went into making sure that the alleged victims and priests who were the subjects of the study would remain anonymous. The study used a doubleblind method. All the reports were sent to the accounting firm Ernst & Young, where they were stripped of any information that could be used to figure out which area sent them. Then Ernst & Young sent the survey responses in unopened envelopes to the John Jay researchers. So, any information that could be used to identify a specific diocese, eparchy, religious community, priest, or victim is taken out of the data set. A Look at Prevalence and Reporting • Priest surveys asked for the accused priests' birth dates and initials to see if the same priest was being accused in more than one diocese, eparchy, or religious community. In order to protect privacy, this data was encoded into a single identifying number. Birthdays and initials were then thrown away. We found 310 encrypted numbers that matched. These numbers belonged to 143 priests who were accused in more than one diocese, eparchy, or religious community, which is 3.3% of the total number of priests who were accused. When we got rid of the duplicate files for priests who were accused of sexual abuse in more than one place, we were left with accusations against 4,392 priests from 1950 to 2002 that had not been withdrawn or were known to be false. • There are 4,392 priests who have been accused of abuse in our survey. It's hard to say what percentage of all priests have been accused of sexual abuse because there isn't a set number of priests who worked between 1950 and 2002. We used two sets of numbers to get a rough idea of how many active priests there were, and then we worked out what percentage of those priests were accused. • We asked each diocese, eparchy, and community how many priests were working there during this time. When all the responses were added up, dioceses, eparchies, and religious communities said that 109,694 priests had served in their religious ministry from 1950 to 2002. Based on this number, 4.0% of all priests who worked between 1950 and 2002 were accused of abusing children. • From 1960 to 2002, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) lists a total of 94,607 priests. The CARA database shows that there have been 4,127 claims of sexual abuse against priests during the time period it covers. In this way, the number of priests accused for this time period is 4.3% if we rely on the CARA figures assessing the total number of priests. • There are differences between diocesan and religious priests. Of the total number of priests we looked at, 4.3% were accused of abusing children and 2.5% were accused of abusing children. Based on the CARA data, 5% of diocesan priests and 2.7% of religious priests from 1960 to 1996 were accused of abusing children. • Our research showed that the rates of alleged abuse were pretty consistent across regions of the Catholic Church in the U.S. They ranged from 3% to 6% of priests. • A total of 10,667 people said that priests sexually abused children. The file showed that 17.2% of the people who said they had been abused also said their siblings had been abused. • From our polls, we can't tell what percentage of all real cases of abuse that happened between 1950 and 2002 were reported to the Church and are therefore in our dataset. Child sexual abuse claims are made slowly over a long period of time, and it's likely that more claims will be made about the recent time periods that our surveys cover. This means that more than 25% of the claims were made more than 30 years after the alleged abuse took place. Less than 13% of the claims were made in the year that the abuse allegedly began. How The Cases Were Spread By Year • The number of reported cases spread out by the year the abuse is said to have started or happened peaks in 1970. However, because some abusive acts went on for a long time, more abuse happened in the 1970s than in any other decade, reaching a peak in 1980. But these conclusions need to be tempered because new claims about those times may come to light in the future. • Abuse claims sometimes went back many years. Three eighteenths of the time, the abuse happened within a year. Twenty-one percent of the time, it happened between two and four years, 10.2 percent between five and nine years, and less than one percent for ten years or more. • About a third of all allegations were made between 2002 and 2003, and two thirds have been made since 1993. So, before 1993, Church leaders only knew about one-third of the cases. The accusations made in 1993 and 20022003 cover crimes that are said to have happened from 1950 to 1993 and from 1950 to 2002. The breakdown of the offenses alleged during 2002– 2003 is similar to the breakdown of offenses alleged during any other time period. The only difference is that abuse allegations have become a smaller part of all allegations in recent years. How Much Allegations Cost Because of the accusations, the Church has already paid $472,000,000 to victims, for the care of priests, and for legal fees that were reported in our surveys. That amount is not all the Church has paid so far; 14% of dioceses and religious communities did not give dollar amounts. Also, survey responses were turned in over a 10-month period, and they didn't include costs and settlements that happened after the surveys were turned in. Also, none of the dioceses talked about the recent $85,000,000 settlement that got a lot of attention. Adding the reported $85,000,000 settlement brings the total amount the church paid to more than $500,000,000. Priests and Accusers (Profile Of Priests With Allegations) • Most of the priests who have been accused of abuse were ordained between 1950 and 1979 (68%). 21.3% of the accusations were made against priests who were ordained before 1950, and 10.7% were made against priests who were ordained after 1979. • When they were ordained, more than 79% of these priests were between the ages of 25 and 29. Over 40% of the priests whose age was known at the time of the first report of abuse were between the ages of 30 and 39. Around 23% were between the ages of 40 and 49, and about 17% were over 50. Another 20% were younger than 30. • It is said that 42.3% of priests were associate pastors, 25.1% were pastors, 10.4% were resident priests, and 7.2% were teachers at the time of the abuse. Other groups, like chaplain, deacon, and seminary administrator, had less than 3% each. • Most priests (56%) were accused of abusing one victim, 27% were accused of abusing two or three victims, 14% were accused of abusing four to nine victims, and 3.4% were accused of abusing more than ten victims. The 149 priests (3.5%) who were accused of abusing more than ten people were said to have abused 2,960 people, which is 26% of all allegations. Because of this, a very small number of accused priests are responsible for a large number of the accusations. • Surveys show that almost 7% of priests had been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused as children. However, their personnel files don't have a lot of information about their abuse as children or their problems with drugs and/or alcohol. The polls also showed that almost 17% had problems with alcohol or drugs. Some signs point to the fact that church leaders got involved in some way with more than 80% of the cases involving drug abuse. • 32% of priests who were accused of sexual abuse were also known to have other behavioral or mental health issues, according to the surveys. Characteristics of The Offense • The majority of alleged victims (50.9%) were between the ages of 11 and 14, followed by 15.3% who were 15 to 17, 16.1% who were 8 to 10, and almost 6% who were younger than 7. In total, 81% of the victims were men and 19% were women. Most of the time, male victims were older than female victims. More than 40% of the victims were boys between the ages of 11 and 14. • 37% of the priests who were accused of sexual abuse went to treatment programs. The most common types of treatment programs were ones that were designed specifically for clergy and ones that offered one-on-one psychological counseling. It was more likely for a priest to go to treatment if there were more accusations against him. The seriousness of the alleged crime, on the other hand, had no effect on whether or not the priest went to a treatment program. Priests who were accused of less serious crimes were just as likely to go to treatment as priests who were accused of more serious crimes. • Priests were accused of doing things that could be put into more than 20 groups. Touching over the victim's clothes (52.6%), touching under the victim's clothes (44.9%), the cleric having oral sex (26%), the victim being naked (25.7%), and penile penetration or attempted penile penetration (22.4%) were the most common things that were said to have been done. A lot of the abusers were accused of abusing different victims in different ways, and only a few priests were accused of abusing victims in very minor ways. We knew about 90% of the reported incidents that were specific offenses. However, 1%, or 141 incidents, were reported that only involved verbal abuse and/or the use of pornography. • The alleged abuse took place in several places. The alleged abuse took place in the church (16.3%), the victim's home (12.4%), a vacation home (10.3%), school (10.3%), and a car (9.8%). However, the priest's home or the parish residence was the most common place. In less than 10% of the cases, the abuse was said to have happened somewhere else, like on a church trip or in a hotel room. People were most likely to be abused at a social event (20.4%), while visiting or working at the priest's home (14.7%), or while traveling (17.8%). In less than 10% of the cases, abuse was said to have happened in other places, like during counseling, school hours, or sports events. • In the 51% of cases where information was given, 2,638 of the people who said they had been sexually abused by the priest (or 25.7% of all alleged victims) had a relationship with him outside of church. Most of the people who did hang out with the priests who were accused of abusing them did so at the family's house. The church, the priest's home, and different church activities were also places where people got together. Reporting and What Was Done • About 1,021 priests, or 24% of our total, have been called to the police with claims of abuse so far. It's been looked into almost all of these reports, and in 384 cases, criminal charges have been brought. Out of the priests whose sentences are known, 252 were found guilty and at least 100 of them was sent to prison. So far, about 2% of priests who were accused of wrongdoing have been sent to prison, and 6% of those priests have been found guilty. • Only 49.9% of the accusations were made by someone other than the victim. Twenty-three percent of the time, the lawyer for the alleged victim made the sexual abuse claim. The third most common way the abuse was reported was by the victim's parent or guardian (13.6%). In less than 3% of cases, accusations were made by someone else, like a police officer, a sibling, or another priest. Most of the time, these claims were made by calling the diocese (30.2%), writing a signed letter to the diocese (22.8%), or filing a lawsuit (10.5%). Other ways the accusations were made, like in person, by telling a trusted priest, or through the media, happened less than 10% of the time. Cases reported in 2002 were spread out in the same way as cases reported in previous years.