[NYer]

The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down — the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.

Religious groups and victims' supporters have been keenly interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950.

Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church; indeed, many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult.

Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year

[Titanites]

Also from EthicsDaily.com:

That is a higher number than the annual average of 228 "credible accusations" brought against Catholic clerics in records reported by the Catholic Church in response to media scrutiny, a priest observed in a Fox News commentary questioning why the story isn't garnering more attention.

While the report about abuse in Protestant churches doesn't absolve guilty Catholic priests or those who enabled them, said Father Jonathan Morris, it offers a more complete picture. "The problem of sexual abuse has no denominational boundaries," he wrote.