[An Overview] 
1997-2002

[The original articles]   
Alphabetically by author

[New Articles] 

[Explanatory articles]   
Alphabetically by author

[Discussion]   
Chronologically:
First reactions: 1998, 1999
First round of discussion: 1999 & 2000
Second round of discussion: 2000 & 2001 
Third round of discussion: medium 2001 - 2002 

[Replication] 
Ulrich e.a. 2005-2006. 

[Some documents] 
Chronologically 

An Overview

Gieles, F. The struggles about the free will, facts and morality , The debate about the publications of Rind, Bauserman & Tromovitch goes on –  a bird’s eye view, 1997 - 2002, In: Ipce Newsletter E 13, June 2002
In this article, I have tried to give an overview of the debate on the Rind et al. publication in 1998 and earlier. It appeared that the debate was hot and that it had several phases. People began to attack without even reading the meta-analysis, and even politicians mixed the discourse about facts and the discourse about morals.  Gradually, the meta-analysis was seriously studied and the debate concentrated on the science and the facts. The science is still in debate, but some facts are acknowledged, and the author and their publications are taken as seri

The original articles

Alphabetically by author

Bauserman, Robert, Objectivity and Ideology, Criticism of Theo Sandfort’s Research on Man-Boy Sexual Relations; Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 20, nr. ½, 1990
Three critiques of Theo Sandfort’s research on man-boy sexual relationships in the Netherlands are examined and evaluated. Three types of criticism - methodological, speculative and moral - are identified. Specific criticisms of the study are evaluated on the basis of their validity and, where appropriate, their underlying assumptions. It is argued that moral condemnation of such relationships, combined with a prevailing ideology of boy "victims" and adult "perpetrators," results in efforts by Sandfort’s critics to attack and discredit his research rather than evaluate it objectively.

Bauserman, Robert & Rind, Bruce, Psychological Correlates of Male Child and Adolescent Sexual Experiences with Adults:  A Review of the Nonclinical Literature, Archives of Sexual behavior, 26-2, 1997
Researchers have generally neglected sexual experiences of boys with adults, assumed them to be the same as those of girls, or tried to understand them by referring to clinical research while ignoring nonclinical research. 
A review of nonclinical research allows a more complete understanding of boys' sexual experiences with adults and the outcomes and correlates of those experiences.

Rind, B. (1998). Biased Use of Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Male Homosexuality in Human Sexuality Textbooks. The Journal of Sex Research 35:4, pp. 397-407. A Review by Adam.

Rind, Bruce & Bauserman, Robert, Biased Terminology Effects and Biased Information Processing in Research on Adult-Nonadult Sexual Interactions: An Empirical Investigation; The Journal of Sex Research Vol. 30, No.3, pp. 260-269 August 1993
Adult-child and adult-adolescent sexual interactions have generally been described in the professional literature with value-laden negative terms. Recently, a number of researchers have criticized this state of affairs, claiming that such usage is likely to have biasing effects.
The current investigation examined empirically the biasing impact of negative terminology.
[...] Students' judgments were negatively biased by the negative terminology. The students also exhibited evidence for biased processing of the nonnegative outcome information.

Rind, B., Bauserman, R. & Tromotitch, Ph.,
An Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Based on Nonclinical Samples, Paper presented to the symposium sponsored by the Paulus Kerk, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on the 18th of December 1998.
"The results of our reviews clearly show that the assumptions of most mental health professionals, legislators, law enforcement personnel, media workers, and the lay public that sexual relations defined as CSA cause intense harm pervasively for both boys and girls are vastly exaggerated."
Download as Zipped Html file or as PDF file

Rind, Bruce & Tromovitch, Philip, A Meta-Analytic Review of Findings from National Samples on Psychological Correlates of Child Sexual Abuse, The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 34, No.3, 1997 pp. 237 - 255  
We found that, contrary to the implications and conclusions contained in previous literature reviews that were focused on biased samples, in the general population. CSA is not associated with pervasive harm and that harm, when it occurs, is not typically intense.
Further, CSA experiences for males and females are not equivalent: a substantially lower proportion of males reports negative effects.
Finally, we found that conclusions about a causal link between CSA and later psychological maladjustment in the general population cannot safely be made because of the reliable presence of confounding variables.
We concluded by cautioning that analysis at the population level does not characterize individual cases: When CSA is accompanied by factors such as force or close familial ties, it has the potential to produce significant harm.  

Rind, B., Tromovitch, Ph. & Bauserman, R.,
A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples, in: Psychological Bulletin 1998, Vol 124, No 1, pp 22-53.
"Self-reported reactions to and effects from CSA* indicated that negative effects were neither pervasive nor typically intense, and that men reacted much less negatively than women. The college data were completely consistent with data from national samples. Basic beliefs about CSA in the general population were not supported."
[* Child Sexual Abuse]
Download as a .PDF file

Tromovitch, Ph., Rind, B. & Bauserman, R., Adult Correlates of Child Sexual Abuse: A meta-analytic review of college student and national probability samples, SSSS-ER April 18, 1997
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is viewed by the lay public, and by many professionals, as one of the most psychologically damaging events that a child or adolescent can experience.
[...] The findings from this report contradict prevalently held assumptions about CSA — assumptions that may bias not only the lay public, but researchers studying and reporting on activities classifiable as CSA.

New articles:

Rind, Bruce, PhD., Gay and Bisexual Adolescent Boys' Sexual Experiences With Men: 
An Empirical Examination of Psychological Correlates in a Nonclinical Sample, In: Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 30, No.4, 2001
Over the last quarter century the incest model, with its image of helpless victims exploited and traumatized by powerful perpetrators, has come to dominate perceptions of virtually all forms of adult-minor sex. Thus, even willing sexual relations between gay or bisexual adolescent boys and adult men, which differ from father-daughter incest in many important ways, are generally seen by the lay public and professionals as traumatizing and psychologically injurious. This study assessed this common perception by examining a nonclinical, mostly college sample of gay and bisexual men. 
[From the Appendix:]
"It developed over time and was great. We became friends and I invited him over once when my parents weren't home. I practically had to force sex on him because he was afraid about losing his job. Ended when I went away for the summer and he wasn't a teacher at my school no more" 

Rind, Bruce, An Elaboration on Causation and Positive Cases in Child Sexual Abuse; Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice V10 N3, 2003.  Abstract 
Sbraga and O'Donohue (2003, this issue) argued that backward reasoning from current symptomatology to past child sexual abuse (CSA), often done by experts in court cases, is flawed in several important ways.
Backward reasoning, or postdiction, is usually based on models that assume that CSA invariably causes symptoms and that it is always negatively experienced. They demonstrated the weaknesses in these assumptions.

Summary of
Bruce Rind: Pederasty: An Integration of Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Empirical Data 
In: Journal of Homosexuality: Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West; Volume: 49 Issue: 3/4 2005 
The current article examines empirical rather than clinical data on pederasty, and supplements this with cross-cultural and cross-species perspectives. The empirical data show that pederasty is not only not predestined to injure, but can benefit the adolescent when practiced according to the ancient Greek form. Cross-cultural and cross-species data show the extensiveness of pederasty in the natural world, as well as its functional rather than pathological nature in these societies and species.
An evolutionary model that synthesizes the empirical, cross-cultural, and cross-species data is proposed as an alternative to the highly inadequate feminist and psychiatric models. The animal data suggest that the seeds for pederasty were planted at the dawn of humanity. The human data suggest that pederasty came to serve a mentoring function. 

Rind, Bruce, PhD, An Empirical Examination of Sexual Relations Between Adolescents and Adults. They Differ from Those Between Children and Adults and Should Be Treated Separately - In: Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality Volume: 16 Issue: 2/3, 2004, pp 55 - 62 - And in: Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law - Multidisciplinairy Perspectives; Helmut Graupner & Vern L. Bullough (Editors), The Haworth Press, 2004

For heterosexual adolescent boys involved with women and for gay/bisexual adolescent boys involved with men, the non-clinical empirical data are strongly at odds with the assumption of trauma. [...] In these relations, the data point more directly to psychological benefit than harm. 

Rind, Bruce & Tromovitch, Philip, National Samples, Sexual Abuse in Childhood, and Adjustment in Adulthood; A Commentary on Najman, Dunne, Purdie, Boyle, and Coxeter (2005); Archives of Sexual Behavior; December 2006 
Based on the foregoing analyses, a more appropriate ending to their Abstract would be: “CSA in the Australian population is common but, according to the data in the current study, is only weakly associated with poorer sexual functioning in adulthood. Whether this association is causal, however, needs further study.”

About the Meta-Analyse: 1. Explanatory articles 

Alphabetically by author

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Humane Sexualität e.V., Archiv, Dr. Rind, Dr. Bauserman, Dr. Tromovitch ... wo die Freiheit der Wissenschaft endet.   
Eine Studie über den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern, die in der renommierten, amerikanischen Psychologenzeitschrift "Psychological Bulletin" veröffentlicht wurde, erzeugte eine unglaubliche Kontroverse. Die darin veröffentlichte, Meta-analytische Studie von Dr. Rind, Dr. Bauserman und Dr. Tromovitch untersuchte anhand von 59 vorhandenen Untersuchungen über College-Studenten, die wissenschaftliche Genauigkeit des Begriffes "sexueller Missbrauch". Die Ergebnisse legten nahe, dass die Schädlichkeit sexueller Kontakte zwischen Erwachsenen und Kindern deutlich geringer ist, als allgemein angenommen. "Sexueller Missbrauch" impliziert nicht zwingend Schaden und für bereitwillige Kinder können sexuelle Kontakte möglicherweise positiv sein.

Arcados, traduction de ce site web: Un Compte-rendu de A Meta-Analystic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples, Bruce RIND, Philip TROMOVITCH, Robert BAUSERMAN 
N'ayant  les compétences requises ni en sociologie ni en statistique pour nous permettre de juger de la valeur de cette étude, nous ne sommes pas à même de nous prononcer à son sujet. Notons seulement que, si l'American Psychological Association a cherché à prendre ses distances avec les conclusions de ces auteurs, elle a réaffirmé la validité méthodologique de l'étude.

Ferguson, Bob, Youthful Sexual Experience and Well-being, Important Conference in Rotterdam, in: Koinos Magazine #21 (1999/1)

Galaburda, Cyril E., Mathematical Statistics for Pedophiles
This article is a textbook for those who study the “Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples” (1998) by Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch and Robert Bauserman. The essential principles of probability theory, correlation analysis, and statistical tests theory are explained. Among which path analysis, variance analysis, regression analysis, contrast analysis, and sermi-partial correlational analysis are expounded.

Gieles, F.E.J., Mister President..., The USA is shocked by the research of Rind, Bauserman & Tromovitch; chronological overview of the critical reactions; in: Ipce Newsletter E6, July 1999

Gieles, F.E.J., An Explanation of the statistics, used in the Meta-analysis, in: Ipce Newsletter E7, December 1999

* Translation into Russian, by Cyril Galaburda

NAMBLA: Buenas noticias sobre el amor entre hombres y niños 
Traducción: Ipce 
Un análisis recientemente publicado sobre 59 estudios distintos acerca de la sexualidad de los jóvenes acaba de aparecer en el prestigioso Psychological Bulletin. Utilizando una poderosa técnica denominada «metaanálisis», el análisis demuestra que la guerra actual contra los boylovers no tiene ninguna base científica. 

Hollida Wakefield; The Effects of Child Sexual Abuse: Truth Versus Political Correctness; IPT Journal, 2006; 16,
Research over many years establishes the negative effects of child sexual abuse are not as pervasive, severe, and long-lasting as generally assumed. But rather than being seen by victims' advocates as good news, such research results are met with resistance, anger, and personal attacks. This controversy reached its height in 1999 when the media, conservative organizations, and the United States Congress condemned a 1998 meta-analysis in the Psychological Bulletin by Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman. The American Psychological Association's response to the furor was to distance itself from the article and its authors. This episode demonstrates the difficulty of doing and reporting research where conclusions contradict strongly held beliefs.

About the Meta-Analysis: 2. Discussion 

Chronologically:
First reactions: 1998, 1999
First round of discussion: 1999 & 2000
Second round of discussion: 2000 & 2001 
Third round of discussion: mid-2001 - 2002

First reactions: 1998 & 1999 

First round of discussion: 1999 & 2000

Berry, Kenneth K. & Berry, Jason, The Congressional censure of a research paper: Return to the Inquisition? From: Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest, Commentary in the issue dated December 10, 1999 
We have taken the first large and frightening step away from scientific freedom and toward totalitarianism in control of scientific endeavors.

Gieles, F.E.J., Science and Morality or The Rind et al. Controversy, The counter arguments replied, in: Ipce Newsletter E7, December 1999
[...] Science should give the facts and has the right and obligation to do this; the media has to inform the public correctly; politicians should honestly lead the process of decision making in moral matters. [...]
This discussion, about moral matters, is a different kind of discussion; it differs from the discussion about the facts in every aspect of the discourse. It’s another kind of discourse, as Habermas showed us. The U.S. Congress has interchanged both kinds of discourses.

Ericksen, Julia A., Sexual liberation's last frontier, in: Society May-June 2000, 37-4.
It is appropriate to undertake such research if only to wrest the terms of the debate from conservatives who have used pedophilia as a way to silence all attempts at sexual tolerance.

Haaken, Janice & Lamb, Sharon, Politics of CSA research, in: Society, May-June 2000, 37-4
Haaken and Lamb attempt to steer a middle ground between a social constructionist or culturally relative position on sexuality on the one hand, and an approach that emphasizes universal principles of justice and care on the other.

Tavris, Carol, , The uproar over sexual abuse and its findings, in: Society, May-June 2000, 37-4
Congress and clinicians may feel a spasm of righteousness by condemning scientific findings they dislike, but their actions will do little or nothing to reduce the actual abuse of children.

Bullough, Vern, The Pedophilia Smear, in: Taking Positions, 5 June 2000
Self-appointed guardians of American morality like Laura Schlessinger are targeting sex researchers, including me. 
In June 1998, Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch, and Robert Bausenman published a meta-analysis of 59 studies dealing with child sexual abuse based on college samples in the Psychological Bulletin. [...]
A year earlier Rind and Tromovitch reached similar conclusions about child sexual abuse using a national probability sample. Their findings should have encouraged therapists to rethink some of their assumptions since they implied that, for a significant portion of child sexual abuse victims, the trauma was not what many believed it was, and that treatment modalities could be adjusted according to the individual himself or herself.
Instead the two studies led to a firestorm of controversy which eventually resulted in a congressional resolution condemning them. Why?

Esterie, Philippe (& Hélène Amboureux), Abus sexuel: Le rapport capital, Le rapport Bauserman analysé et commenté dans la France de l'an 2000
Pour recevoir en qualité d'un ZIP Html fichier ou bien d'un .PDF fichier-texte et 
.PDF fichier-les-notes

Dear Dr Laura
 The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a US resident, which was posted on the Internet.
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination.
End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them.
1. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev. 1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them? [...]

Letter to the Editor, Aug. 2, 2000
Erica Goodes prompt response to the publication of the latest child abuse study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, (Childhood Abuse and Adult Stress, p. A22, Aug. 2nd) strikes of a continuation of scientific revisonism begun after the publication in 1998 of Rind, Bauserman and Tromovitchs Meta-Analysis of Child Sex Abuse Using College Samples in Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association

O'Carroll, Tom, Discussion of the Rind meta-analysis with a British journalist
A JOURNALIST invited by Tom O'Carroll to read the famous Rind et al. meta-analysis published in the Psychological Bulletin wrote back with a number of criticisms of the paper and questions about it. The following are extracts from Tom's response.

Rind, Bruce; Bauserman, Robert & Tromovitch, Philip, Debunking the false allegation of "statistical abuse": a reply to Spiegel; Sexuality & Culture, 4-2, Spring 2000, 101-111
Consistent with his other attacks on our analyses, Spiegel (2000) elsewhere in this volume characterized our analyses as "statistical abuse." Despite the fact that we have already extensively considered and refuted the Leadership Council's criticisms, because of this inflammatory and unprofessional characterization, as well as Spiegel's use of related emotive phrases such as "rationalization for sleazy exploitation" and "moral outrage," we deem it important to specifically address Spiegel in this separate reply.

Spiegel, David, The price of abusing children and numbers, Sexuality & Culture 4-2, Spring 2000, 63-66
Sex with children is morally wrong as well as emotionally and physically damaging, Rind et al. notwithstanding. Clear-eyed reason and common sense do not diverge here. Statistical abuse has as many bad aftereffects as sexual abuse. We should not tolerate either.

Spiegel, David, Suffer the children: Long-term effects of sexual abuse, Society, 05/01/2000, 37 -4, 18-20
The "Psychological Bulletin" ignited a storm of controversy by publishing an article by Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch and Robert Bauserman that appeared to offer evidence that there are few if any lasting ill effects of child sexual and physical abuse. Spiegel suggests that the study is seriously flawed in its assumptions, methods, and conclusions.

Spiegel, David, Real effects of real child sexual abuse, 2000
I will now briefly respond to Rind, Bauserman, and Tromovitch's discussion of my critique [...]
Claiming to examine the proposition that "child sexual abuse (CSA) causes intense harm, regardless of gender, pervasively in the general population" ( 1998, p. 22), Rind et al. studied elite, high functioning samples, included mild "abuse" events, excluded those events serious enough to preclude college admission, and failed to assess the full range of possible outcomes. I leave it up to the reader to decide who is distorting, misrepresenting, and overstating.

Zuriff, G.E., Pedophilia and the culture wars, in: Public Interest, Winter 2000
The article gives a short summary of the research of the Rind et al. team. Then, it will explain why the results of this research have upset many groups in the US society, including the Congress, so that these groups will deny the results of the research. 
The author analyses the remarkable reaction of the APA, who turned 180 degrees and who published paradoxes. The author analyses the ideological combat that's going on behind the scene.

Second round of discussion: 2000 - 2001

Rind, B., Tromovitch, Ph. & Bauserman, R., 
Condemnation of a scientific article: A chronology and refutation of the attacks and a discussion of threats to the integrety of science, in: In: Sexuality & Culture, 4-2, Spring 2000
[<< External links >>] 
The current article chronicles this whole affair. First, we provide background, explaining why an article such as ours was needed. Then we accurately summarize the article, given that it has been so widely misrepresented. Next we present a chronology of the events leading up to and following the condemnation. We then present and refute all the major criticisms of the article, which have included both methodological and conceptual attacks. Next we discuss the threat to science that these events portend. We conclude by discussing the need to separate moral judgments from scientific research, the conflation of which formed the basis for the distortions and condemnation. 

Mirkin, Harris, Sex, Science and Sin: The Rind Report, Sexual Politics and American Scholarship,  Manuscript submitted to Sexuality and Culture, Special Issue on Rind-Tromovitch-Bauserman
Many social scientists and psychologists disagreed with the article, but one would have expected them to fight back with other articles rather than with a call for censorship. In fact, the problem with the article wasn't that it was methodologically weak, but that it was strong. It broke the rules of sexual politics. [...]
The Rind report attacked the empirical foundation of the moral claims that were being made, and like the Kinsey Reports it was vehemently attacked and seen as undermining the moral tradition. The anger was generated against the two reports not because they were unconvincing but because they, each in their own way, were too convincing. If their analyses were right it would shake the foundations of the moral claims that were commonly made and largely accepted. To admit Rind type arguments into the debate, and to argue shades of gray and issues of definition, was to lose the major battle. The Rind argument didn't overtly challenge the moral premise about adult/youth sex, but it did threaten to change the type of argument. That was the danger.

Anderson, Walter Truett, Uproar Over Child Sex Study Still Going Strong After Two Years,  Pacific News Service, May 30, 2001
Quarrels in academia tend to stay indoors, however ferocious they may become. But a paper challenging conventional wisdom on the question of adult-child sexual relations has produced resounding noises.
[...] So we now have a whole herd of arguments -- not just about the impacts of child-adult sex experiences, but about whether the APA should have published the Rind article or then apologized for publishing it, or should have published the Lilienfeld article. 
None of these arguments has been resolved. The only concrete step so far is that Lilienfeld has reportedly resigned from the APA. And the only clear conclusion to be drawn from it is that adult-child sex is too hot a subject for academic publications.

Klein, Marty, APA Embarrasses Itself Again, in: issue #16 of the electronic newsletter 'Sexual Intelligence', June 2001
It isn't enough to learn lessons in life; you have to learn the right lessons. Having learned to not stick its hand in the oven, The American Psychological Association (APA) has now put its hand into the fireplace.

Lotfus, Elisabeth:
Memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus wins American Psychological Society award; defends the Rind team and Lilienfeld, and criticizes the American Psychological Association.
The FMS (False Memory Syndrome) Foundation Newsletter of July/August 2001, 10/4, gives the text of a speech by memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus, who helped discredit recovered memories. Loftus received an award from the American Psychological Society.
In her speech, she mentions the Rind et al controversy and Lilienfeld. Below, 

Paolucci, Elisabeth; Genius, Mark & Violato, Claudio, 'Meta-analysis of published research on the effects of child sexual abuse (CSA)' ,  Journal of Psychology (2001, 135, 1, 17-36
A meta-analysis of the published research on the effects of child sexual abuse (CSA) was undertaken for 6 outcomes: posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicide, sexual promiscuity, victim-perpetrator cycle, and poor academic performance.
Thirty-seven studies published between 1981 and 1995 involving 25,367 people were included. Many of the studies were published in 1994 (24; 65%), and most were done in the United States (22; 59%). [...]
The analyses provide clear evidence confirming the link between CSA and subsequent negative short- and long-term effects on development. [...] 
The results of the present meta-analysis support the multifaceted model of traumatization rather than a specific sexual abuse syndrome of CSA.

Rind, B., Bauserman, R. & Tromovitch, Ph., The Condemned Meta-Analysis on Child Sexual Abuse; Good Science and Long-Overdue Skepticism; In: Skeptical Inquirer July/August 2001, 68-72   PDF file [External link to PDF file]
In July 1999, the prestigious journal Psychological Bulletin published our review of fifty-nine studies that had examined psychological correlates of child sexual abuse (CSA) [...] We soon achieved an unexpected honor: our paper was unanimously condemned by Congress.
In the aftermath, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER has published two commentaries, one denouncing Congress [...] and the other denouncing our study (Hagen 2001). We would like to offer our own thoughts about this astonishing story of politics, pressure, and social hysteria - the antitheses of critical and skeptical thought.
We conducted our research in the spirit of scientific skepticism, an attitude sadly missing in the CSA panic that arose throughout much of the 1980s and early 1990s.

American Psychologist March 2002, Volume 57, Number 3, Abstracts
[Special issue about the Rind et al. discussion]

Dallam, S. J. (2002). Science or Propaganda? An examination of Rind, Tromovitch and Bauserman (1998). Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 9(3/4), 109-134.
(Simultaneously published as a chapter in Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors (Charles L. Whitfield, MD, FASAM; Joyanna Silberg, PhD; and Paul Jay Fink, MD, Eds.) Haworth Press, 2002)  
"The purpose of the present article is to examine whether Rind et al. (1998) is best characterized as unpopular science or pedophile propaganda." [...]
" [...]  the authors’ views on sex between adults and children have more in common with the ideology of advocates of “intergenerational” sexual relationships, than the reasoned opinions of most other scientists who have studied this issue." [...]
"After a careful examination of the evidence, it is concluded that Rind et al. can best be described as an advocacy article that inappropriately uses science in an attempt to legitimize its findings."

Dallam, S.J., Gleaves, D.H., Cepeda-Benito, A., Silberg, J.L., Kraemer, H.C. & Spiegel, D.,
The Effects of Child Sexual Abuse: Comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998);
Psychologican Bulletin, 127, 6, 715-733, 2001
The current analysis revealed numerous problems in that study that minimized CSA-adjustment relations, including

Rind et al.'s study's main conclusions were not supported by the original data. As such, attempts to use their study to argue that an individual has not been harmed by sexual abuse constitute a serious misapplication of its findings.

O'Keefe, Mark, Some in mainstream contend certain cases of adult-minor sex should be acceptable, Newhouse News Service, Star Tribune [Minneapolis, Minnesota], March 26, 2002
Sex between adults and children has been a societal taboo so strong that it's considered one of our few unquestioned moral principles. But arguments have emerged in academic journals, books and online that at least some such sex should be acceptable, especially when children consent to it.
Those making the case aren't just fringe groups, such as the North American Man-Boy Love Association, but a handful of academics at mainstream universities.

Ondersma, S.J., Chaffin, M., Berliner, L., Cordon, I., Goodman, G.S. & Barnett, D.,
Sex With Children Is Abuse: Comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998);
Psychologican Bulletin, 127, 6, 707-714, 2001
[...] Several aspects of their work have proven to be highly controversial, including their assertion that the relation between child sexual abuse and adjustment is quite small and their questioning of whether child sexual abuse should be labeled abuse in scientific inquiry. In this commentary, the authors summarize the controversy that has ensued, place it in a historical context, discuss the limitations of B. Rind et al.'s findings, and critique the manner in which those findings are presented. The authors also argue for the appropriateness of the term abuse and for scientific terminology that reflects rather than contradicts consensual public morality.

Rind, B., Tromovitch, Ph., & Bauserman, R., 
The Validity and Appropriateness of Methods, Analyses, and Conclusions in Rind et al. (1998): A Rebuttal of Victimological Critique From Ondersma et al. (2001) and Dallam et al. (2001);
Psychologican Bulletin, 127, 6, 734-758, 2001 
The authors respond to 2 victimological critiques of their 1998 meta-analysis on child sexual abuse (CSA). S. J. Dallam et al. (2001) claimed that B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (1998) committed numerous methodological and statistical errors, and often miscoded and misinterpreted data.
The authors show all these claims to be invalid. To the contrary, they demonstrate frequent bias in Dallam et al.'s criticisms. S. J. Ondersma et al. (2001) claimed that Rind et al.'s study is part of a backlash against psychotherapists, that its suggestions regarding CSA definitions were extra-scientific, and that the moral standard is needed to understand CSA scientifically. The authors show their suggestions to have been scientific and argue that it is Ondersma et al.'s issue-framing and moral standard that are extra-scientific. This reply supports the original methods, analyses, recommendations, and conclusions of Rind et al.

Schulte-Stracke, Peter, Streit um sexuellen Missbrauch; Einige Anmerkungen zum Zürcher Tagesanzeiger vom 16.2.2002 
Die Meta-Analyse des »sexuellen Mißbrauchs« durch Bruce RIND, Philip TROMOVITCH und - last but not least - Robert BAUSERMAN hat Furore gemacht. Nunmehr hat der Zürcher Tagesanzeiger die Veröffentlichung zweier Kritiken und der Replik der Autoren im Novemberheft der Zeitschrift Psychological Bulletin zum Anlaß eines Beitrages von Jochen Paulus genommen. Einige Punkte darin sind zu ergänzen oder zu korrigieren.

Tuller, David, Sex between teenage boys and older men is not always coercive -- and it can be more ecstatic than traumatic; Minor report; Salon.Com July 22, 2002 
[....] it doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination -- at least not of my imagination, nor, as it turns out, the imaginations of other gay men of my acquaintance -- to believe that there are some men whose lives were not destroyed, or may even have been enhanced, by adolescent sex with a priest. They have not gone public, nor would I expect them to, especially in the current environment. But that they exist -- somewhere -- I have little doubt.

Replication 

Some documents

The Congress Resolution 107, July 12, 1999

APA's Statement
Statement dated March 23, 1999 by the American Psychological Association:
"Childhood Sexual Abuse Causes Serious Harm to its Victims"

The Author's Response, May 12, 1999

Fowler's Statement
Controversy Regarding APA Journal Article, From: Ray Fowler, Ph.D., 25 May 1999

The other APA's Statement
America Psychiatric Association medical director criticizes other APA's publication of pedophilia study, June 1, 1999 

Hatfield, Dr. Elaine & others, Letter to APA; 3 July 1999 
We, the president and past-presidents of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, members of the SSSS Executive Committee, and editors of Journal of Sex Research and the Archives of Human Sexuality would like to urge the American Psychological Association to take a strong stand in support of Dr. Bruce Rind [... ... ...]

Tiefer, Leonore, PhD., Outraged; Letter to APA; July 15, 1999 
Your response to the Congressional and conservative organizations' furor, as presented in The New York Times, seems to me to have been exactly the opposite of what was needed. You should have taken the opportunity to rush to the Hill to explain to Congress how peer review works [...] to explain to Congress how meta-analysis is an excellent new tool [...], to explain to Congress that political interference with scientific processes is exactly what won't help children and won't help society understand complex and controversial issues, and to offer workshops on child sexuality and meta-analytic techniques to assist Congress in the future.

Weldon, Dave; Protect The Children, Jul 29 1999
Speech In The House Of Representatives, Thursday, July 29, 1999, condemning the Rind c.s. research reports.

Top scientific body finds no reason to fault Rind report, November 17th 1999

Laura Schlessinger, Evil among us

The NARTH's web page:
The Problem of Pedophilia; Adult-Child Sex Is Not Necessarily "Abuse," Say Some Psychologists

NAMBLA's statement: The Good news About Man/Boy Love