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	Talk to Police First Sexual Abuse Is a Crime, and It Needs to Be Reported First to Law Enforcement, Not to Officials of Other Institutions. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel February 8, 2010 http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/83835022.html MILWAUKEE (WI) -- If you are a victim of sexual abuse or if you know someone who has been sexually abused or you know of a case of sexual abuse, you need to report that to the police or other civil authority before you report it to anyone else. You don't first report it to a school principal, teacher, counselor, minister, rabbi, imam, priest or bishop. You go to the police. Sexual abuse is a crime and needs to be reported to the proper law enforcement agency just as any other crime should be. And it should be the policy of any institution - schools, churches, youth organizations - to encourage victims and others to report such crimes to civil authorities. That's the way the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese has seen the issue. The archdiocese's notification statement, which is posted on its Web site at www.archmil.org, directs those with complaints of sexual abuse involving victims younger than age 18 to notify civil authorities. That should apply to all victims of sexual abuse, regardless of age, but the archdiocese is pointing in the right direction. The La Crosse diocese is not. That diocese's policy directs those with accusations of clergy sexual abuse involving children to notify the diocese, which will keep the allegation confidential and assess what the appropriate response should be, including what the reporting requirements might be. The diocese informs authorities of allegations of sexual abuse that involve children, but the Web site does not explicitly tell people to contact civil authorities. It should, and that's a policy change rightly being sought by Eau Claire Police Chief Jerry Matysik. The La Crosse diocese needs to change its policy statement, and newly appointed Milwaukee Catholic Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who came to Milwaukee from La Crosse, needs to reassure civil authorities and the community here that he will continue the statement that's been in effect in Milwaukee. Victims, authorities and the community at large deserve to know that Listecki won't change the statement to what it was under his authority in La Crosse. Listecki also could help by clarifying a statement he made at a legislative hearing last month when he said that the La Crosse policy had been changed. He may have simply misheard a question; there was no intent to be untruthful, an archdiocesan spokeswoman told us. But the policy remains unchanged on the La Crosse diocese's Web site at www.dioceseoflacrosse.com/">www.dioceseoflacrosse.com. Sexual abuse is first and foremost a crime; it needs to be treated as such by every person and every institution. Anyone aware of a crime has a moral responsibility to report it to the proper civil authorities.
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