THIS IS A REPOSTING FROM SPOTLIGHT ON ABUSE, THANKS TO THE PEOPLE THERE FOR THIS, I DIDNT REALISE UNDERWAGER HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CLEVELAND CHILD ABUSE INVESTIGATION:Baroness Butler-Sloss and her ‘valuable and important witness’
American ‘child abuse expert’ Ralph Underwager gave evidence, oral and written, to the Cleveland Child Abuse Inquiry in 1987 and was described by the chairman, Lord Justice Butler-Sloss as a “valuable and important witness.” In his oral evidence he asserted the following as proven by research:-
- Abused children are not secretive: cannot feel shame or embarrassment before the age of 9 or 11
- The recidivism rate for abusers is 1% to 2%
- Anal assault was the most rare and infrequent form of abuse and then only occurs with perpetrators who are “rather crazy”
- Abused children are not threatened
- 5% of claims of abuse are probably well founded, as judged by the conviction rate
- There is no therapeutic benefit in an abused child expressing their feelings afterwards to a psychiatrist. He said he regarded his views as mainstream.
Recently Dr Underwager said in an Internet exchange that he had treated victims of sexual abuse since 1953 and in all that time had never met one who blamed themselves for the abuse by thinking they had invited the abuse or was a bad person.
Ralph Underwager and his wife, Hollida Wakefield believe that “ill founded, intrusive, and destructive state intervention in the lives of families and individuals under the cloak of saving children from abuse is a serious widespread problem.”
(Accuracy About Abuse – Info Sheet 8, September 1995. By Marjorie Orr)
Ralph Underwager
Ralph Underwager was exposed by an interview he gave to a European paedophile magazine called Paidika, in which he said child sexual abuse was “God’s Will”.
Here are some extracts from the interview, which can be found here:
Underwager: Paedophiles can boldly and courageously affirm what they choose. They can say that what they want is to find the best way to love….Paedophiles can make the assertion that the pursuit of intimacy and love is what they choose. With boldness they can say, “I believe this is in fact part of God’s will
Paidika: Is choosing paedophilia for you a responsible choice for the individuals?
Underwager: Certainly it is responsible. What I have been struck by as I have come to know more about and understand people who choose paedophilia is that they let themselves be too much defined by other people. That is usually an essentially negative definition. Paedophiles spend a lot of time and energy defending their choice. I don’t think that a paedophile needs to do that. Paedophiles can boldly and courageously affirm what they choose. They can say that what they want is to find the best way to love. I am also a theologian and as a theologian, I believe it is God’s will that there be closeness and intimacy, unity of the flesh, between people. A paedophile can say: “This closeness is possible for me within the choices that I’ve made.”
Paedophiles are too defensive. They go around saying, “You people out there are saying that what I choose is bad, that it’s no good. You’re putting me in prison, you’re doing all these terrible things to me. I have to define my love as being in some way or other illicit.” What I think is that paedophiles can make the assertion that the pursuit of intimacy and love is what they choose. With boldness, they can say, “I believe this is in fact part of God’s will.” They have the right to make these statements for themselves as personal choices. Now whether or not they can persuade other people they are right is another matter (laughs).
See also: Ralph Underwager and the Cleveland child abuse inquiry
