The only reasons that the numbers are higher in the Catholic Church is because it is the largest church and because the media hones in on it. Most statistics that have compared sexual abuse across denominational lines have actually found lower rates of abuse in the Catholic church than in many Protestant denominations and lower than in the public school system. Not to say that any abuse is OK or that statistics somehow excuse it happening even once, but it is very unfair the way it has been painted as a Catholic problem and the way priests have been maligned as potential abusers by association.
The sad thing about the media is that the church investigating allegations and cooperating with authorities to bring about justice buts the issue in the limelight. When they do what is right in this situation, it creates another story for the media to feed on and accuse them of doing wrong. At least the church is attempting to root our problems, bring offenders to justice, and take steps to prevent abuse now that they have learned some of the ways they went wrong in the past.
By comparison, I grew up in an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist group where physical and sexual abuse were pretty rampant and offenders covered for each other, victims were blamed for their own abuse, and victims and their parents were intimidated into not speaking up or pressing charges. There was no hierarchy or denominational oversight and abusers can, did, and do keep right on preaching and working with youth or move from church to church in different areas as people start asking questions. The denomination doesn’t tend to have much money and isn’t high profile, so the media and even law enforcement has ignored this pattern for years. Several major figures in these groups have resigned due to sexual abuse allegations or charges, and even one to jail because of them, in the past few years, but the cases have barely hit the media and have been covered as isolated incidents not as a pattern. Some other Protestant groups have similar things happening - people on the inside know cases are related, but they are not reported as such because they are not as easy to group together as the Catholic Church is.
