Just think about the ARC that was conducted here in Australia with 1006 cases of child sexual abuse handled by Elders that were never reported to the authorities or police over the past 35? years .With a population of about 60-70 thousand Jehovah`s Witnesses.
Now compare that with how many Jehovah`s Witnesses there are in the USA and what the ratio is likely to be with child sexual abuses in the congregations their.
If somebody more adept than me can do the correlation I would appreciate it.
If the rate of reported cases were statistically similar in both countries, then ...
If there were 1000 reported* cases of child sexual abuse for a membership of 30,000 to 70,000 publishers in Australia, then in the U.S., there could be 16,000 - 17,000** reported* cases of abuse during the same time period. [U.S. publishers ranged from 500,000 - 1,200,000 during the same time period (1980-2016).]
This is assuming there is the same rate of abuse in both countries. I think the prevalence rate of child sexual abuse for the general population in United States and Australia may be similar, but I have read in some places that Australia's prevalence may be a bit higher. (I'll let someone else research that).
16,000-17,000 cases. If it is correct, that number is staggering to me, yet I would suspect the number is probably higher for the U.S.
* These are only the ones reported. I personally suspect the actual figure of abused children to be much higher.
** Check my math.