Archive Home Page Subj: Re:NAMBLA 94-10-05 18:49:23 EDT
From: Joe Uhrig
>>99.3% of sexual molestations are done by heterosexuals. Only 7/10 of ONE PERCENT had a homosexual involved.<<
Your statistics are wrong. Most current (1990) research points to no difference in percent molesters per population with a slight skewing towards gay children as more likely being victims (perhaps because they are a little more vulnerable).
It's been a while but I once did a research paper on this and dug into the research journals though I am not an expert on this. Some child molesters don't care about the gender of their victims and will molest boys as well as girls. Some men who molest boys do not consider themselves gay, others do.
As best as I could determine from my research and my own experiences, impulses to molest are primarily a coping mechanism on the part of the perpetrator as a result of abuse that occured to them (and not always specific sexual trauma as molestation often has much more to do with power than sexual fixations). Until the basic underlying abuse is dealt with, a perpetrator will generally not change their patterns. Often memories of the underlying abuse are buried. Recovery is often a very painful process (memories won't actually kill you, they just feel like they could kill you).
Sexual abuse is a very complex subject and needs to be dealt with openly. The National Mental Health Alliance has a forum here on AOL and the posts on this subject are as enlightening as they are gut wrenching. This is an awful awful closet for both gay and straight people and it needs a thorough airing and even more thorough cleaning.