65%: Sandusky did wrong
Jerry Sandusky, the central figure in the Penn State child sexual abuse scandal, has spoken. He says he is innocent of sexual abuse charges against him, but he did admit to taking showers and “horsing around” with young boys. In a Poll Position national scientific telephone survey we asked, do you believe Sandusky is guilty of criminal wrongdoing?
Americans answered with a lopsided margin of 65% saying they believe Sandusky is guilty of criminal wrongdoing, 5% do not believe he is, 30% did not have an opinion on the Sandusky question.
Women, Republicans and Americans 65 and over believed Sandusky is guilty more than other groups we asked. Women chose guilty of criminal wrongdoing by 71% to 3%, 26% had no opinion. Republicans believe Sandusky is guilty of criminal wrongdoing by 72% to 6%, with 22% offering no opinion. Americans 65 and over said Sandusky did criminally wrong by 72% to 3%, 25% did not have an opinion.
Among men, 59% believe Sandusky is guilty of criminal wrongdoing, 7% do not believe he is, 34% had no opinion. Whites said Sandusky was criminally guilty of wrongdoing by 70% to 3%, 27% had no opinion. African-Americans also thought Sandusky was guilty of criminal wrongdoing by 56% to 7%, 38% did not have an opinion.
Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,170 registered voters nationwide was conducted November 15, 2011 and has a margin of error of ±3%. Poll results are weighted to be a representative sampling of all American adults.
What do you think? Vote in our online companion poll and comment below.
The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.
Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation. Here are the crosstabs for this poll: Poll Position Crosstabs-Sandusky wrongdoing
You can learn more about our polling methodology here.
My job for 25 years has been to work
with victims of childhood sexual abuse. Anyone
who thinks this man is innocent was probably
abused themselves and is in deep denial. His
mode of operation is standard for the abuser….
there are only two ways to sexually abuse
a child…….knock them out with a frying pan, or
groom them to need your attention. The only thing
unusual about this ” coach” is that sex abuse
occurs within the family over 90% of the time…
for generations to come are overwhelming.
Innocent until proven guilty. Whatever happened to that? Countless reputations have been ruined based on false allegations. Let’s let the courts decide before hanging him from the gallows.