sexual abuse by teachers

sexual abuse by teachers. Two recent studies have considered the issue of abuse by teachers. One study, which
surveyed 494 teachers in New York, found that 24% of teachers were aware that an allegation of sexual abuse had been made against a teacher in their school district
within the previous year (Anderson & Levine, 1999). Fifty-six percent of teachers
reported that they were aware that a false allegation of abuse had been made against
a teacher in their school district in the last few years. This is an interesting wording of the question asked of respondents, because these researchers never asked whether
teachers were aware of true allegations of abuse—only false allegations. Further,
more than half of the teachers believed that it was probable or somewhat probable
that students make allegations against teachers and that allegations might even be brought against themselves. A primary focus of the paper by Anderson and Levine
was whether teachers might limit contact with students based upon fears of false allegations of abuse.
The other recent study surveyed affiliates of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation
to determine their knowledge of abuse allegations (Dolmage, 1995). A total of 47 incidents involving elementary schoolteachers, only one of which involved a female teacher, were known to these affiliates over a five-year period. Of the 38 cases that
had gone to court, only 16 resulted in convictions. While the researchers argue that
the acquittal rates are far in excess of what would be expected. “Offenders,” that less than 20% of substantiated abuse in the United States leads
to convictions and that 2% or less of abuse known to or suspected by professionals
leads to conviction. That this study found a conviction rate of 42% of alleged abuse is instead quite remarkable. Even so, Dolmage concludes from this study that “a
number of teachers are falsely accused each year” (p. 137).
While the issue of false allegations by children cannot be dismissed, a review
of the literature on false disclosures in Chapter 11 , “Professional Response to Child Sexual Abuse,” indicates that only approximately 1% to 5% of all disclosures made
by children are false. Thus, it is of concern that both studies instead appear to assume that false disclosures are prevalent. Further, ignoring his finding that 95% of
allegations were made against male teachers—which is exactly the proportion of
male offenders in the general population (Finkelhor et al., 1990; Russell, 1983; Wyatt, 1985)—Dolmage (1995) instead calls for procedures to “protect innocent
[male and female] teachers from character assassination” (p. 138). Yet, he fails to question why 95% of those needing such protection are male. Again, this is not to
ignore the troubling issue of occasional false disclosures, but it is instead to suggest that a logical alternative hypothesis in both of these studies is that most allegations of
sexual abuse against teachers are probably true, regardless of whether the teachers are convicted.