Very interesting:
June 9, 1999
The Honorable Tom DeLay
Office of the Majority Whip
H û 107 U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative DeLay:
I want to begin by commending you for your strong personal and professional
commitment to the serious problem of child abuse. We especially value your
sponsorship of the Child Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Act (CAPE). The
American Psychological Association strongly supports this bill and will continue
to work for its enactment.
We believe, as we know you do, that the sexual abuse of children is a criminal act
that this reprehensible in any context. The Association, through its national
programs as well as the work of its members, devotes considerable time and
resources to protecting children from being victimized by such abuse. The
Association is proud of its record in the area and will continue to devote
substantial resources to the prevention and treatment of all childhood abuse,
including sexual abuse.
The Association has always condemned the sexual abuse of children. This
position is absolutely fundamental to our organization and is demonstrated by our
strong record of advocacy on behalf of abused children and our work to educate
the public, health, professions, and others about the prevention and treatment of
such abuse. We do not support the ônormalizationö or discrimination of any form
of sexual relations between adult and children. Such behavior must remain criminal
and punishable to the full extent of the law.
The Association has been publishing scientific articles of the highest quality for
over 100 years. We take very seriously the responsibility of maintaining a rigorous
and independent peer review process for our 37 scientific journals. However, the
peer review process was never designed to consider the public policy implications
of research conclusions, a point illuminated by the current controversy
surrounding the article, A MetaAnalytic Examination of Assumed Properties of
Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples, by Bruce Rind, Philip Trornovitch, and
Robert Bauserman.
We acknowledge our social responsibility as a scientific organization to take into
account not only the scientific merit of articles but also their implication for
public
policy. Some of the language in the article, when examined from a public policy
perspective is inflammatory. Clearly, the article included opinions of the authors
that are inconsistent with the APA’s stated and deeply held position on child
welfare and protection issues. It is the position of the Association that sexual
activity between children and adults should never be considered or labeled as
harmless or acceptable. Furthermore, it is the position of the Association that
children cannot consent to sexual activities with adults. These inconsistencies
between the conclusions the authors suggest and positions of the Association
should have caused us to evaluate the article based on its potential for
misinforming the public policy process. This is something we failed to do, but will
do in the future.
Additionally, concerns have been raised that the aforementioned article and the
inferences drawn from it could be viewed as support for pedophilia and used by
pedophiles as a legal defense. There is no defense for pedophilia; it is always
wrong. To ensure that the APA’s position is known to the courts, public policy
official and parents, we are undertaking the following actions.
Our Board of Directors has approved a resolution that clearly affirms our longheld
position condemning the sexual abuse of children. This official statement
represents the views of our organization, which is comprised of 159,000 members
and affiliates. (A copy of the resolution is enclosed.) This resolution reflects the
AssociationÆs longstanding commitment to addressing the problems of child
abuse, a commitment demonstrated by the enclosed brief summary of recent
Association activities.
Our General Counsel is preparing amicus brief materials that could be adapted for
use in any court of law to challenge any efforts to use the data in this or any other
study to justify, condone, or normalizes sexual interactions of any sort between
children and adults. These materials would also serve to refute any claims that the
American Psychological Association in any way condones sexual relations
between children and adults or any form of abuse of children.
We will seek independent expert evaluation of the scientific quality of the article
and will make those results known. This is unprecedented in the Association’s
history of scholarly publishing, but, in view of the criticism of this study by
various
groups and individuals, we believe that such a review is appropriate.
We are strengthening procedures within the Association to assure that journal
editors will fully consider the social policy implications of articles on
controversial
topics. We will also increase efforts to encourage scientific comments, rebuttals or
refutations from researchers and practitioners with expertise in child sexual abuse in
an upcoming issue of one of premier journals.
As part of the Association’s long time initiatives to prevent child abuse, we have
published numerous articles on treatment and prevention targeted at both the
professional and public audiences (see enclosed brochure). To build upon these
earlier publications, we are in the process of creating a public information brochure
that will give parents and other caregivers practical, actionable information on how
to protect their children from sexual abuse. We hope to enlist religious
organizations, child protection and advocacy groups, educational and mental
health associations, youth service organizations, and our state psychological
associations to lend their support to this project and to assist us in the
distribution
of the brochure. Our goal is to distribute their brochure to parents across the
United States during the Fall of this year.
In addition to the specific actions outlined above, the American Psychological
Association will continue to support the prevention of child abuse and the
treatment of its victims. Thousands of our members work in child abuse prevention
programs, and thousands more provide therapy and family support to victims of
this reprehensible behavior.
The American Psychological Association will continue to work with many members
of Congress and those in the advocacy community who have called for an end to
child sexual abuse in our society and full punishment of all sex offenders. We
pledge our intention to be action participants in this effort.
If you have questions or concerns about APA’s position on child sexual abuse or
our work in the area of prevention and treatment, please feel free to contact me at
(202) 3366080.
Sincerely,
Raymond D. Fowler, Ph.D.
CEO/Executive VicePresident
