The Lacuna Project

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Exhibit 471

The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950-2002

Exhibit 471 ยท Commissioned study

The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950-2002

Thus, prior to 1993, only one-third of cases were known to Church officials.

Descriptive study from church records supplied by dioceses, eparchies and religious communities. Counts allegations against 4,392 priests (4.0 percent of 109,694 priests, or 4.3 percent on a CARA base) by 10,667 individuals, 1950-2002. States it cannot determine what share of actual abuse was reported; $472 million paid by the time of the surveys; 1,021 priests reported to police, 384 charged, 252 convicted. Funded by the USCCB; data stripped of identifiers through Ernst & Young.

Source
John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (commissioned by the National Review Board)
Date
February 2004 (first printing June 2004)
Quoted from
Executive Summary, p. 5
Grade
Primary record
Document
https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/The-Nature-and-Scope-of-Sexual-Abuse-of-Minors-by-Catholic-Priests-and-Deacons-in-the-United-States-1950-2002.pdf
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding REL-3.2
Primary record Church files supplied to the 2004 John Jay study recorded allegations against 4,392 priests, 4.0 percent of the 109,694 who served from 1950 to 2002, made by 10,667 individuals. The 2011 John Jay study found that by 1985 bishops knew that sexual abuse of minors by priests was a problem but not its scope, because more than 80 percent of the cases now known had occurred by then and only 6 percent had been reported to dioceses.