The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
The L.A Times recently reviewed about 1,600 of the Boy Scouts of America files dating from 1970 to 1991. In which hundreds of cases of sexual abuse were not reported to law enforcement.
Over a hundred men on the BSA’s sexual offender blacklist were able to have access to Boy Scouts. They did this by either changing their names or taking advantage of poor bookkeeping within the organization and showing up to “volunteer” for other troops.
In one case, a boy that was abused by a scout leader went on to become a molester himself. Had he been given any kind of counseling for his abuse, he may not have turned into an abuser.
Often times when boys were found to have been molested, other scout leaders would not tell the parents, nor would they report it to law enforcement. In many cases, scouting officials said they would keep the allegations quiet as a way of sparing the young victims of embarrassment.
When leaders were accused of sexual abuse and openly admitted it, they were often asked to resign. One man resigned stating that he had to travel more for work.
In at least 50 cases, before expulsion was required, the Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover they had re-entered the program and were accused of molesting again.
Up until 1988, Scout leaders accused of child abuse only faced probation. A criminal background check requirement wasn’t added until 2008, and in 2010 the Boy Scouts finally required suspected abuse be reported to police.
According the Scout Timeline, abuse of boy scouts wasn’t made known until the 1980s. In 1986 Boys’ Life magazine published “Wrong Kind of Touching.” That same year, several other articles were published regarding child sex abuse and the Child Bill of Rights.
Throughout the end of the 1980’s the Boy Scouts of America published many “How to” booklets including, “Child Sex Abuse- How to Deal with it”, “Barriers Against child Sexual Abuse”, and “A Time to tell”- which was a video teaching youth how to recognize, resist, and report child abuse.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of child sex abuse within the Boy Scouts of America, call Damian Mallard, Sarasota Child Sex Abuse Attorney, for a free consultation at 888-409-3805
For more information about the prevention of Child Abuse order our FREE book, “When the Unthinkable Happens: Your Guide to Florida Child Abuse Claims”
