Boy Scouts and Sexual Predators

Internal documents from the Boy Scouts of America reveal more than 125

cases in which men suspected of molestation allegedly continued to abuse 
Scouts, despite a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators. 
A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files from 1970 to 1991
found suspected abusers regularly remained in the organization after
officials were first presented with sexual misconduct allegations. 

Predators moved from troop to troop because of clerical errors, computer

glitches or the Scouts' failure to check the blacklist, known as the

“perversion files," the newspaper said. 

In at least 50 cases, the Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover 

they had re-entered the organization and were accused of molesting again. 

In other cases, officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place, 

letting offenders stay in the program until new allegations came to light, the 

Times reported. 

One scoutmaster was expelled in 1970 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old 

boy in Indiana. After being convicted of the crime, he went on to join two 

troops in Illinois between 1971 and 1988. He later admitted to molesting 

more than 100 boys, was convicted of the sexual assault of a Scout in 1989 

and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, according to his file and court 

records. 

In 1991, a Scout leader convicted of abusing a boy in Minnesota returned to 

his old troop shortly after getting out of jail. 

Many of the files will soon be made public as a result of an Oregon Supreme 

Court decision. The Associated Press, the New York Times, the Oregonian 

and other media outlets petitioned for the release of 1,247 files from 1965 to 

1984 that had been admitted as sealed evidence in a 2010 lawsuit. 

The Times analyzed a set of files that were submitted in a California court 

case in 1992. Their contents vary but often include biographical information 

on the accused, witness statements, police reports, parent complaints, news 

clippings, and correspondence between local Boy Scout officials and 

national headquarters, according to the newspaper.

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)