Victims as Criminals?

The misjudgments made by the Spotlight Team make it even more difficult to swallow another excuse that Globe Ombudsman Christine Chinlund has offered for the Spotlight Team's failure to write about women, namely, the reminder that the group consists of only four members.  According to Chinlund, these four have been so busy researching past cases and keeping up with breaking news that they have simply not had time to report on female victims of clergy sexual abuse.  Apart from wondering why a newspaper would not assign more reporters to cover the biggest story that ever fell into its lap, this defense invites us to look at the reports that the Globe did find time to publish.  It is, for instance, hard to explain why anyone would spend a single second working on stories such as "Victim Mulled Murder," an entire article on the decades-old thoughts of a troubled man who once considered slitting the throat of the priest who had abused him. 

Exploring similar themes, a Spotlight reporter also spent time on "Convicted Killer Says Geoghan Molested Him."  This rather long article not only features grisly details of the killing, it includes ruminations on the proportion of criminals among the victim population.  Michael Rezendes, the author of the story, first quotes David Finklehor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.  A well-respected expert, Finklehor does his best to dismiss any causal connection between being molested and committing homicide: "I'm not arguing that the molestation couldn't have been a factor or isn't something that should be considered, but I think it's a big leap to say that without the molestation there would have been no murder."  Rezendes then calls on Robert A. Sherman, a local attorney, to shed doubt on Finkelhor's remarks: "We know that some of the consequences of sexual abuse include a defiance of authority, engaging in high-risk behavior, and substance abuse, so it's not a great leap to see how somebody who has been abused could run afoul of the law." This slanted picture might have been defensible if it were balanced by more representative portraits of survivors, but since the Spotlight team has excluded women and concentrated on the most troubled male victims, it serves only to distort the wider realities of sexual abuse. 

Having learned almost nothing about the process of recovery in the Spotlight Series, Globe readers understandably tend to view victims as a rather pathetic lot, beset by murderous thoughts, mired in addiction, and liable to commit reckless acts.  However, if you follow stories published elsewhere, you will see that most of the survivors who have come forward have managed to build stable, peaceful, and, more often than not, alcohol and drug-free lives.  Although some of us are poor, and many still struggle with profound emotional difficulties, virtually all are speaking out for entirely rational reasons: we hope to hold the men who harmed us accountable for their crimes, we want to reach out to victims who have yet to come forward, and we aim to make sure that what happened to us will never happen again.  In short, if you set aside the inaccuracies promoted by the Spotlight Team, you will see that we are generally responsible, fairly courageous, and relatively sane women and men.