Young girls are raped by clergy and family members. They’re told that it’s ungodly to report it.
I think this is common among most tightly knit groups. They never want to draw negative attention to the group and prefer to handle matters themselves.
I read the full article and it looks like things are being done about it. I’ve encountered a few Amish and no, I dont like everything they do.
On the one hand, they’re adherence to such a spartan lifestyle would seem to indicate sincerity in their beliefs, but this would be seem to indicate otherwise for at least some of them.
I am sure sexual abuse happens in every group. No doubt it is harder to determine the actual level in semi-isolated groups like the Amish even than it is in the general populace. So it is hard to tell if the level is higher, lower, or the same as for other demographics.
The linked article says there are 342,000 of them in the US. 52 incidents in twenty years may be the tip of the iceberg, or a representative sample - there’s no way to tell.
Regards,
Shodan
Leaders of a socially isolated religious cult sexually preying on its young female members. Who would have predicted it?
From the ‘me too’ movement and talking to some women on that it appeared that sexual abuse is or at least has been a pretty regular thing in our society in general. Isolated religious groups, or just isolated groups, may be able to hang on to doing this longer then society mainstream who is just now starting to deal with it.
The Amish are human, not angels. There are good Amish people and bad Amish people.
And, as already noted, sexual abuse is all too common in mainstream society.
So the Amish aren’t much different than Catholics, Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons after all!
Not to mention buggy-driving under the influence.
On the one hand, if you do have to drive your buggy after getting drunk, try not to drive it into a police car. On the other hand, the police in the area may not be the sharpest, since after the accident “several other buggies fled the scene” and were not located by the police, who presumably had internal combustion engines at their disposal.
Seconded. I’ve worked with the Amish and have quite a few friends within the community; I know of one case. It was dealt with internally like they do most things and I could wish things were done differently. But to the best of my knowledge it usually is dealt with. Because of the nature of their faith (look how they, for the most part, forgave the man who shot up the school) IMHO its too easy for people to take advantage and/or become repeat offenders. But considering that the BTK Killer turned out to be “one of mine” I hesitate to throw stones.
Here is a better link with their magnificent mugshots:
Man I don’t know if it’s the inbreeding or what but they look like human Shreks!
Anyone remember this story from the 90s? Two Amish men bought cocaine from bikers to sell to Amish youth.
Part of the reason for under-reporting (aside from the fact that pretty much all sexual abuse is under-reported) is that from the very beginning of the Amish community, the “English” are considered to be outsiders and of the Devil. The idea of going to the English for any kind of help is unthinkable.
If any law enforcement were to attemp an investigation, it would be considered to be an attack on the community itself, and they would close ranks.
It is a male-centric community, and some consider the women to be chattel.
~VOW
This x 1,000,000.
I used to live in an area with a large Amish population, and they’re really no different from “us” under the surface. Some areas have been rife with meth labs, and as for my area (the Ozarks), most of the puppy and kitten mills that were busted were indeed run by the Amish.
While I lived there, an Amish man was arrested, convicted, and sent to the state prison for some kind of sex crime. They showed his mugshot on a local TV station. And more than once, I saw evidence of an abused Amish child at the hospital where I worked, based on the child’s age and admission diagnosis. No, sorry, that baby didn’t roll off the changing table, mmmkay?
As a rule: over time, all institutions, including cultural institutions, get into a routine of existing primarily to serve their own existence. This means that predators can find fertile ground in old and established institutions, since the leadership will have very strong pressure to sweep anything bad under the rug that might otherwise reflect poorly on the institution.
And humans are the same everywhere, with the same predilection towards predatory behavior (and moral behavior, for that matter). So there are no institutions, cultures, peoples, groups, religions, etc., that are exempt from this rule.
I think the only possible way to fight against this, and even this is far from foolproof, is to explicitly make something like “no raping” and “we will report any and all raping and rapey behavior” an embedded value within the organization/institution. Not “we will be honorable and honest”, or anything vague like that, but explicitly making opposing rape and abuse, and reporting any and all instances of them, a primary value.
There’s a similar problem in New York City’s Hasidic community (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_cases_in_Brooklyn%27s_Haredi_community)
Victims and their families are discouraged from going to the civil authorities, and sometimes severely penalized if they do so.
Insular communities that isolate themselves from the outside world are obviously vulnerable to this kind of thing.
It is Against Thee.
Well, they have less access to internet porn. That might have diverted some of this.
I think the jury is still out as to whether porn increases or decreases child abuse.
However, there seems to be wide agreement that porn is the cause of most child-on-child sexual abuse today, and that adult abusers often use porn to groom children.