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June 9, 1999

The Honorable Tom DeLay
Office of the Majority Whip
H–107 U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative DeLay:

I want to begin by commending you for your strong personal and professional commitment to the serious problem of child abuse. We especially value your sponsorship of the Child Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Act (CAPE). The American Psychological Association strongly supports this bill and will continue to work for its enactment.

We believe, as we know you do, that the sexual abuse of children is a criminal act that is reprehensible in any context. The Association, through its national programs as well as the work of its members, devotes considerable time and resources to protecting children from being victimized by such abuse. The Association is proud of its record in the area and will continue to devote substantial resources to the prevention and treatment of all childhood abuse, including sexual abuse.

The Association has always condemned the sexual abuse of children. This position is absolutely fundamental to our organization and is demonstrated by our strong record of advocacy on behalf of abused children and our work to educate the public, health professionals, and others about the prevention and treatment of such abuse.We do not support the "normalization" or decriminalization of any form of sexual relations between adults and children. Such behavior must remain criminal and punishable to the full extent of the law.

The Association has been publishing scientific articles of the highest quality for over 100 years. We take very seriously the responsibility of maintaining a rigorous and independent peer review process for our 37 scientific journals. However, the peer review process was never designed to consider the public policy implications of research conclusions, a point illuminated by the current controversy surrounding the article, "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples," by Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch, and Robert Bauserman.

We acknowledge our social responsibility as a scientific organization to take into account not only the scientific merit of articles but also their implications for public policy. Some of the language in the article, when examined from a public policy perspective, is inflammatory. Clearly, the article included opinions of the authors that are inconsistent with APA's stated and deeply held positions on child welfare and protection issues. It is the position of the Association that sexual activity between children and adults should never be considered or labeled as harmless or acceptable. Furthermore, it is the position of the Association that children cannot consent to sexual activity with adults. These inconsistencies between the conclusions the authors suggest and positions of the Association should have caused us to evaluate the article based on its potential for misinforming the public policy process. This is something we failed to do,but will do in the future.

Additionally, concerns have been raised that the aforementioned article and the inferences drawn from it could be viewed as support for pedophilia and used by pedophiles as a legal defense. There is no defense for pedophilia; it is always wrong. To ensure that APA's position is known to the courts, public policy officials and parents, we are undertaking the following actions:

1. Our Board of Directors has approved a resolution that clearly reaffirms our long-held positions condemning the sexual abuse of children. This official statement represents the views of our organization, which is comprised of 159,000 members and affiliates. (A copy of the resolution is enclosed.) This resolution reflects the Association's long-standing commitment to addressing the problem of child abuse, a commitment demonstrated by the enclosed brief summary of recent Association activities.

2. Our General Counsel is preparing amicus brief materials that could be adapted for use in any court of law to challenge any efforts to use the data in this or any other study to justify, condone, or "normalize" sexual interactions of any sort between children and adults. These materials would also serve to refute any claims that the American Psychological Association in any way condones sexual relations between children and adults or any form of abuse of children.

3. We will seek independent expert evaluation of the scientific quality of the article and will make those results known. This is unprecedented in the Association's history of scholarly publishing, but, in view of the criticism of this study by various groups and individuals, we believe that such a review is appropriate.

4. We are strengthening procedures within the Association to assure that journal editors will fully consider the social policy implications of articles on controversial topics. We will also increase efforts to encourage scientific comments, rebuttals or refutations from researchers and practitioners with expertise in child sexual abuse in an upcoming issue of one of our premier journals.

5. As part of the Association's long-time initiative to prevent child abuse, we have published numerous materials on treatment and prevention targeted at both the professional and the public audiences (see enclosed brochure). To build upon these earlier publications, we are in the process of creating a public information brochure that will give parents and other caregivers practical, actionable information on how to protect their children from sexual abuse. We hope to enlist religious organizations, child protection and advocacy groups, education and mental health associations, youth service organizations, and our state psychological associations to lend their support to this project and to assist us in the distribution of the brochure. Our goal is to distribute this brochure to parents across the United States during the Fall of this year.

The American Psychological Association will continue to work with the many members of Congress and those in the advocacy community who have called for an end to child sexual abuse in our society and full punishment for all sex offenders. We pledge our intention to be active participants in this effort.

If you have questions or concerns about APA's position on child sexual abuse or our work in the area of prevention and treatment, please feel free to contact me at (202) 336-6080.

Sincerely,

Raymond D. Fowler, Ph.D.
CEO/Executive Vice-President