NUN SURVEY: You may have seen this story, “Nuns as sexual victims get little notice.”

Yesterday Amy Welborn linked to a letter to the editor pointing out some of the survey’s flaws:

“The data from which Smith draws his conclusions are based on a select group. Less than one-quarter of the orders (123 out of 538) agreed to participate in the survey, and of those that did agree, less than half of their members (1,164 out of 2,500) responded to the survey. Without additional information about those who refused to participate in the study, it is simply impossible to estimate the level of victimization.

“This leads one to wonder why the Post-Dispatch reported the results of a non-representative survey on the front-page of the Sunday paper. A look at some of the sub-headings of the story is revealing.

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There’s also lots of discussion of the survey, its methodology, and its implications in comments at her site here and here. FWIW, I’m unsurprised that nuns get harassed and abused–there’s a lot of lousiness in the world. But this particular survey seems very sketch, esp. due to its low response rate.