Study reveals extent of sexual abuse

Christian Century, April 4, 2001

In 1993 a consortium of eight major missionary organizations conducted the most comprehensive survey ever made of missionary children. More than 600 former missionary kids responded to the survey out of a sample of 1,200 randomly selected. Portions of the study were released earlier, but the findings on sexual abuse have only now been published.

Forty-one respondents, or 6.8 percent, said that, looking back as adults, there were times during grades one through six that they experienced sexual abuse--primarily when they lived at boarding schools while their parents served elsewhere. Four percent said they were sexually abused during grades seven through 12. The survey question did not define sexual abuse; respondents had to make that judgment.

David Pollock, a researcher, said the results on sexual abuse struck those involved with the project "with a great deal of pain and frustration," and that publication of the results "will be the kind of thing that will awaken some." Why the delay in releasing the 47-page survey? "I don't think it was a matter of not releasing. It was just a matter of not getting it done," said Pollock, executive director of Interaction, a group based in Houghton, New York, that provides ministry resources for missionary families.

The Journal of Psychology and Theology reported in a 1995 article that sexual abuse by missionaries can be found in almost every country where missionaries are working. However, the journal reported, in part because of fears that sponsors might withdraw money, the tendency among mission agencies "is either to deny the possibility or to bury the problem through various administrative strategies.... We must rely almost entirely on anecdotal data." --RNS