Clergy sex allegations soar in the US: Study

sharply last year to nearly 700 from around 400 in 2009, according to a church report yesterday.
The vast majority of the allegations, 653, involved alleged abuse that occurred decades ago but whose “victims/survivors are just now finding the courage to report” them, the study said.
Thirty accusations were made by current minors, but only eight were deemed credible, said the US church’s annual report on implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The number of victims was up sharply from 2009, when there were some 400 new allegations of clergy sex abuse in the United States.
Payouts were also up, rising from $104 million in 2009 to around $124 million last year.
Most of the allegations, 574, were against priests – nearly half of whom are already deceased. Some 275 of the accused priests had already faced earlier accusations, the report said. More than half the victims were between the ages of 10 and 14 when the alleged abuse began; one fifth were aged between 15 and 17 years, while another fifth were younger than 10.
Most victims were boys – 83 percent – and two-thirds of the alleged incidents occurred or began between 1960 and 1984, the report said. – AFP.