Why is Penn State the Scapegoat for Child Abuse?

I am embarrassed to be a Penn State Alum. And as a victim of child abuse I have no issue with the NCAA coming down hard on them, but at the same time I think the NCAA and the majority of Americans are being biased by this media attention in the wrong way. Sandusky is going away for life, Paterno died (and his name banished from the university), and most of the Penn State administration officials with knowledge of the cover up will go to prison. The institution is forever tarnished and everyone associated with the university (faculty, students, and alumni) are embarrassed for the rest of their lives. The NCAA - an unpopular organization - siding with public outrage from vast media attention still decided to act in an unprecedented fashion.

This is the first time that NCAA placed sanctions on an institution for non-sports related (criminal) violations. In 2011, 7% of all Division I NCAA football players were arrested. Over 40% of the cases were serious – assault, battery, robbery, sex offense, so forth. The NCAA did not get involved, and in most serious cases athletes were merely suspended for few games. In 2003, a Baylor University student, Carlton Dotson, murdered his teammate, Patrick Dennehy. What was Baylor’s penalty? A one year self-imposed postseason ban and the loss of 3 scholarships – the NCAA did not even get involved. These are just a few examples of NCAA hypocrisy.

This is the first time the NCAA acted before the school could respond to an investigation report. There will be no letter of allegations in this case. There will be no waiting period for Penn State to prepare a defense. Penn State won’t even be allowed a defense. The NCAA acted without due process. They are taking the Freeh Report as gospel. Heck, the Freeh report suggests that University Police and even the victims’ guidance counselors were made aware of the abuse, but they did nothing. The cover up was much deeper than just Penn State football, but no one seems to be aware of this fact.

The 60 million dollar fine on Penn State may seem like a penalty against the football program, but the football program supports all other sports and that means athletes outside of the football program are being penalized. Penn State did not get the death penalty, but the sanctions are worse than what SMU received the year they got the death penalty. And let’s not forget the university will owe more than a 100 million more dollars on civil suits. Maybe this is appropriate and warranted, but never has a program had to face such both criminal and NCAA fines.

But there is one important thing the media and citizens are missing. Former Penn State President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and Vice President Gary Schultz were indicted for perjury in the cover up. However, these individuals were not charged with not reporting the abuse. That is because laws for pedophiles are lenient. It is law enforcement and their policies that are the problem when it comes to child abuse and pedophilia. In fact, the U.S. spends more money on trying to rehabilitate pedophiles than trying to rehabilitate their victims. What has the media, NCAA, or individual citizens done to help the victims of these horrific crimes or to try to put an end to this type of violence? Nothing, but they are going use Penn State on the poster for child abuse in this country. This is not right. Whether we like it or not pedophilia, child abuse, and spousal abuse are common and happening right next door to us. But how many get involved or just look the other way? If I see abuse happening or think it is happening, I report it and will get involved. You need to do the same.

I leave you with some startling statistics about pedophilia in this country. If after reading this you still think Penn State is the problem than you have a problem (some of these stats are old, but the it just suggests the problem is bigger in the present). I believe law enforcement needs to be held accountable and I also think each and every American citizen also needs to be held accountable for solving the problem, and not placing blame and calling for action from others. We may feel good that everyone has come down hard on Penn State, but what has this done to solve the problem? Nothing. Most people say the right thing when it comes to abuse, but 99% of the people look the other way when they are confronted with abuse (Just like Penn State)

• There are over 500,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. (1 in 600 people).
• Sixty-seven percent of all victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies were juveniles (under the age of 18) 34% of all victims were under age 12.
• One of every seven victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement was under age 6.
• 8 out of 10 prisoners convicted of sexual assault had committed their crime against a victim under age 18.
• Convicted rape and sexual assault offenders serving time in State prisons report that two-thirds of their victims were under the age of 18, and 58% of those–or nearly 4 in 10 imprisoned violent sex offenders–said their victims were aged 12 or younger.
• Four data sets (the FBI’s UCR arrests, State felony court convictions, prison admissions, and the National Crime Victimization Survey) all point to a sex offender who is older than other violent offenders, generally in his early 30′s, and more likely to be white than other violent offenders.
• On a given day in 1994 there were approximately 234,000 offenders convicted of rape or sexual assault under the care, custody or control of corrections agencies: nearly 60% of these sex offenders are under conditional supervision in the community.
• An estimated 24% of those serving time for rape and 19% of those serving time for sexual assault had been on probation or parole at the time of the offense for which they were in State prison in 1991. ( U.S. Department of Justice)
• Sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison–5.3% of sex offenders v. 1.3% of non-sex offenders.
• A 1994 National Institute of Health survey of 453 pedophiles, conducted by Dr. Gene Abel, showed these criminals were collectively responsible for the molestation of over 67,000 children. That’s an average of 148 children per individual pedophile.
• An estimated 5.1% (1 of every 20 persons) will serve time in prison during their lifetime. (Criminal Offenders Statistics)
• “62.5% of 108,580 persons released from prison in 1983 were re-asserted for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years.”
• (Bureau of Justice Standards.)
• “2/3rds of Sex Offenders in State Prisons had victimized a Child.’ (Bureau of Justice Standards.)
• “60% of 234,000 sexual offenders in 1994 convicted of rape or sexual assault were under conditional supervision in the community.”
• “The median age of the victims of imprisoned sexual offenders was less than 13 years old.” (Bureau of Justice Standards.)
• “4 in 10 inmates serving time in jail for intimate violence were on probation or parole at the time of the violent attack on the intimate (someone they knew)’ (Criminal Offenders Statistics)
• 80% of inmates serving time in State Prison for intimate violence had injured or killed their victim.” (Criminal Offenders Statistics)
• “96% of female rape victims in 1991, younger than 12 years old, knew their attackers. 20% were victimized by their fathers or step-fathers.” (US Department of Justice)
• Children younger than 18 were the victims in almost 20% of the violent crimes committed by State Prisoners. 50% were 12 years old or younger. (U.S. Department of Justice.)
• 25% of prisoners who victimized children had prior convictions for violent crimes. (U.S. Department of Justice.)
• Between 1976 and 1994, almost 37,000 children were murdered. 66% were less than 1 years old and 58% of those from 1 to 4 years old were killed by beating with fists, or blunt objects or by kicking. (U.S. Department of Justice.) “Family Members or Acquaintances commit most of the Child Murders.” (Bureau of Criminal Justice Standards.)
• 1 in 5 violent offenders serving time in a State prison reported having victimized a child.
• More than half the violent crimes committed against children involved victims age 12 or younger.
• 7 in 10 offenders with child victims reported that they were imprisoned for a rape or sexual assault.
• Two-thirds of all prisoners convicted of rape or sexual assault had committed their crime against a child.
• All but 3% of offenders who committed violent crimes against children were male.
• Offenders who had victimized a child were on average 5 years older than the violent offenders who had committed their crimes against adults.
• Nearly 25% of child victimizers were age 40 or older, but about 10% of the inmates with adult victims fell in that age range.
• While nearly 70% of those serving time for violent crimes against children were white, whites accounted for 40% of those imprisoned for violent crimes against adults.
• Inmates who victimized children were less likely than other inmates to have a prior criminal record–nearly a third of child-victimizers had never been arrested prior to the current offense, compared to less than 20% of those who victimized adults.
• Violent child-victimizers were substantially more likely than those with adult victims to have been physically or sexually abused when they were children, though the majority of violent offenders, regardless of victim age, did not have a history of such abuse.
• About 14% of child victimizers carried a weapon during the violent crime, compared to nearly half of those who victimized adults.
• About 10% of violent offenders with child victims received life or death sentences and the average prison term was 11 years, somewhat shorter average sentences than received by those with adult victims.
• 3 in 10 child victimizers reported that they had committed their crimes against multiple victims; they were more likely than those who victimized adults to have had multiple victims.
• 3 in 4 child victims of violence were female.
• For the vast majority of child victimizers in State prison, the victim was someone they knew before the crime.
• A third had committed their crime against their own child; about half had a relationship with the victim as a friend, acquaintance, or relative other than offspring. About 1 in 7 reported the victim to have been a stranger to them.
• Three-quarters of the violent victimizations of children took place in either the victim’s home or the offender’s home.
• 4 in 10 child victims of violence suffered either a forcible rape or another injury
• Statistics
• The Statistics of Teacher sexual abuse to Students
• The best estimate is that 15% of students will be sexually abused by a member of the school staff during their school career.
• Though, when the American Association of University Women Foundation surveyed more than 1,600 students in eighth through 11th grade, 25 percent of the girls and 10 percent of the boys who said they had been harassed or abused said the harasser was a school employee.
• The number of K-12 public and private school students in 1996 who have been or will be sexually abused by a member of the school staff is nearly 7 million of 51,331,000.
• Between 1% and 5% of teachers sexually abuse or harass students.
• At least a quarter of all school districts in the United States have dealt with a case of staff sexual abuse in the past ten years.
• Most cases of sexual abuse of students by teachers are never reported.
• In nearly half of the cases, suspects were accused of abusing more than one student.
• Only two cases were cases of false accusations; less than 1 percent of the cases studied.
• No type of school was immune to abuse: public or private, religious or secular, rich or poor, urban or rural.
• Responses to Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Students by Staff - 38.7% of the teachers resigned, left the district, or retired; 17.5% were spoken to informally; 15% were terminated or not re-hired; 11.3% received a formal verbal or written reprimand; 8.1% were suspended and then resumed teaching; 7.5% were cases where the superintendent determined that the teacher hadn’t meant to sexually abuse
• Of the nearly 54% of abusers who resigned, weren’t rehired, retired, or were terminated, superintendents reported that 16% were teaching in other schools and that they didn’t know what had happened to the other 84%. All but 1% of these teachers retained their teaching license.
• Teacher Student Sex Legalities
• In 20 states, it is not a crime for school employees—including teachers, administrators, and coaches—to have sex with students aged 16 and over.
• In 23 states, it is not a crime for school employees to have sex with students aged 17 and over.
• In 45 states, it is not a crime for school employees to have sex with students aged 18 and over.
• In 16 states, it is a crime for adults in a position of trust and authority—teachers, administrators, and coaches among them—to have sex with students under the age of 18.
• Child Pornography and the Internet
• It is estimated that 500 million people worldwide will be connected to the Internet by 2003.
• There are an estimated 100,000 Web sites involved in some way with child pornography.
• The U.S. Customs Cyber Smuggling Center in Fairfax, Virginia, has reviewed more than 10,000 tips since January 2000.
• A 1999 U.S. Customs case revealed a child pornography Web site that in its first three months recorded nearly 150,000 hits and the download of 3.2 million images.
• Since 1992, the U.S. Customs Service has arrested more than 1,000 people on charges related to child pornography. Customs has never lost a case that has gone to the judicial process — defendants have either pleaded guilty or have been convicted.
• Almost 24 million children ages 10 to 17 were online regularly in 1999.
• A survey conducted in 2000 of 1,501 U.S. children ages 10 to 17 showed that about 1 in 4 had had unwanted exposure to an image of naked people or people having sex in the previous year.
• Roughly 1 in 5 children had received a sexual solicitation or approach.
• One in 33 children had received an aggressive solicitation, meaning that someone asked them to meet somewhere, or called on the phone, or sent them a regular e-mail, money or gifts.
• Less than 10 percent of sexual solicitations and only 3 percent of unwanted exposure episodes were ever reported to authorities, including law enforcement agencies or Internet providers.
• Arrests for possessing and distributing child pornography have been climbing steadily, in part because federal agencies are devoting more resources to the issue.
• In fiscal year 1992, U.S. Customs recorded 57 arrests for possession of child pornography transported across borders, 48 indictments and 69 convictions.
• By 2000, those numbers had grown to 320 arrests, 299 indictments and 324 convictions.

• Approximately 695,000 children were victims of maltreatment (unique instances).
• 47 states reported approximately 3.4 million children received preventative services from Child Protective Services agencies.
• Children younger than one year had the highest rate of victimization of 20.6 per 1,000 children in the population of the same age.
• Of the children who experienced maltreatment or abuse, over 78% experienced neglect; more than 17% were physically abused; just under 10% were sexually abused; approximately 8% were psychologically maltreated; just over 2% were medically neglected; and approximately 10% experienced other types of maltreatment.

• A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds
• More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse.
• Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse are under the age of 4.
• It is estimated that between 50-60% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates.
• More than 90% of juvenile sexual abuse victims know their perpetrator in some way.
• Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.
• About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.
• About 80% of 21 year olds that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder.
• The estimated annual cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States for 2008 is $124 billion.

• 14% of all men in prison in the USA were abused as children.
• 36% of all women in prison were abused as children.
• Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime.

• Abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy.
• Abused teens are less likely to practice safe sex, putting them at greater risk for STDs.

• One-third to two-thirds of child maltreatment cases involve substance use to some degree.
• Children whose parent’s abuse alcohol and other drugs are three times more likely to be abused and more than four times more likely to be neglected than children from non-abusing families.
• As many as two-thirds of the people in treatment for drug abuse reported being abused or neglected as children.
• There are approximately 500, 000 registered sex offenders in the US alone.
• Convicted rapists report that two-thirds of their victims were under 18 and 58% of those said their victims were age 12 or under.
• In 1994 only one third of the victims said that they reported being raped to a law enforcement agency.
• In 90% of the rapes of children under 12 years old, the offender knew the victim.
• 8 out of 10 rapists are released prior to trial.
• 61% of violent sex offenders have a prior record.
• 8 out of 10 sex assaulters reported that their victim was under 18. The median age of victims of imprisoned sex offenders was 13 years old.
• 24% of those serving time for rape and 19% of the ones serving time for sex assault were on probation at the time of arrest for rape or sexual assault.
• 28% of released rapists were rearrested within 3 years and charged for a new violent crime.
• 8 % of those are charged with another rape.
• Released rapists were found to be 10.5 times as likely as non-rapists to be rearrested for rape and those who served time are found to be 7.5 times as likely as those convicted of other crimes to be rearrested for a new sexual assault.
• The typical child sex offender molests an average of 117 children, most of who do not report the offence.
• About 60% of the male survivors sampled report at least one of their perpetrators to be female.
• About 95% of victims know their perpetrators.
• It is estimated that approximately 71% of child sex offenders are under 35 and knew the victim at least casually. About 80% of these individuals fall within normal intelligence ranges; 59% gain sexual access to their victims through, seduction or enticement.