Majority of Sexual Abuse Crimes against Children Go Unreported (video)

Huffington Post
November 26, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/majority-of-sexual-abuse-_n_2193408.html

Crimes against children happen everywhere in the world and seem to thrive through a conspiracy of silence and intimidation. Peter Isely, a survivor of child sexual abuse and a founding member of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) joined HuffPost Live host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin to discuss why he chose to break the pattern of silence.

“Childhood sexual abuse is one of the most underreported crimes in the U.S.,” Isely said. “The reporting rate is about six or seven or eight percent at best. Offenders know they have a 1 in 20 chance of getting away with it.”

Isely, who was abused by a Roman Catholic priest, believes that institutions need outside intervention because they cannot police themselves.

"Things only change from the outside," he told HuffPost Live. "Institutions cannot reform themselves. They cannot change themselves. They have to be pressured from the outside."