# why don't priests go to jail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-priests-go-to-jail/129226 "2002-09-23T03:38:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-priests-go-to-jail/129226/1 "2002-09-23T03:38:08Z")
have i missed something? the only disciplining for the child molester catholic priests seem to be moving one from one parish to another. the question is, isn’t molesting children a felony? i have never heard the news address the issue of what to do with a priest after he gets out of prison. has anyone else noticed this? ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-priests-go-to-jail/129226/2 "2002-09-23T04:05:45Z")
short answer: statute of limitations. If a crime is not prosecuted within x years of its commission, it cannot be prosecuted. (other limitations/exclusions apply, see your state for details). By the time victims come forward, the time limit has run out. If not, the Church has typically paid off the victim with “hush money”. Watch the news - more stories expected from Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-priests-go-to-jail/129226/3 "2002-09-23T05:16:32Z")
You’re not reading the news stories very carefully. Many of the priests have gone to jail. The only ones getting off are those all of whose crimes have passed the statute of limitations. Indeed, many of these molestations happened so long ago that the priest is already dead or retired. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-priests-go-to-jail/129226/4 "2002-09-23T11:37:31Z")
> [@](#): > > If not, the Church has typically paid off the victim with “hush money”. Careful, Heathen! Some of us cxall this getting right with people in the only way we can. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-priests-go-to-jail/129226/5 "2002-09-23T14:56:33Z")
That’s a rather broad assertion you have there. Priests of a number of denominations do go to jail. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-priests-go-to-jail/129226/6 "2002-09-23T15:08:48Z")
The problem with catholic clergy (and clergy of other denominations) has not been a reluctance by the prosecutors to prosecute, or a reluctance by the courts to imprison; it has been a reluctance by those who know about these offences to report them to police or prosecutors. That reluctance obviously extended not only to the perpetrators themselves (for obvious reasons) but to the victims and their families (for different but equally obvious reasons) and to the church authorities, once they become aware of the facts. I would be as critical as anybody else of a bishop who failed to report a paedophile priest in his diocese (or, for that matter, who failed to take any effective action to protect people from such a priest) but I must grudgingly recognise that, where the victims and their families chose not to report the matter to the authorities (as evidently happened in a great many cases) this is a factor which should be taken into account in passing judgment on the bishop’s conduct.