who's to blame for the CHild Abuse Problem?
Addressing the specific question of blame requires us to ascertain which problem or element of the problem
The existence of child abusers ? Not one that even I can lay at the WT doors.
The fact that everything being equal JWS must have some child abuser members ? Again not in itself a WT FAULT
Or the way in which the WT supports/fails to support the victim ? Now on this one I can lay some blame at the WT doors - not because of the 2 witness rule but the general desire to cover over failings as they may reflect on "God's Organisation" as if hiding the error removes it. Affording secrecy to offenders cannot but add to the problem - also, forcing young children to 'confront' abusers - will that help the problem ?
Looking at this personally I think that all elders are responsible (as was I when actually an elder) for not reporting all abuse, within the family or wherever - to the proper authorities (social services) to have children protected regardless of the "negative" publicity. Actually if the WT did this they would have less "negative" publicity as child protectioin laws would prevent any publicity initially and the blizzard of current bad publicity would not be happening (in many cases) if the childrens protection had had first place in everyones mind years ago. (Most of the current publicity relates to cases in which abused people have now attained adulthood and chosen to forgo confidentiality to pursue claims etc)
Additionally I regularly read on this site distressing stories of how youngsters received no help or little in the way of encouragement when they bravely made known abuse. Such neglect of little ones is itself a real problem for which the WT stands condemend - but not only as an "organisation" - it takes people to make an organisation and generally those people have turned away from the little one, either from embarrasment or other reasons. As one sister said to me years ago about a reported (in the press - not gossip in the cong) case of child abuse by a "brother" ..."Oh no it must not be true...not in the organisation" ..such blind incredulity creates the perfect environment for a paedophile.