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More than 12,000 Boy Scout members were victims of sexual abuse, expert says

TU Curmudgeon

TU Curmudgeon

B.A. (Sarc), LLb. (Lex Sarcasus), PhD (Sarc.)
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From ABC News

More than 12,000 Boy Scout members were victims of sexual abuse, expert says
​

An expert who has been working with the Boy Scouts revealed that there may have been as many as 7,819 allegedly sexually abusive troop leaders and volunteers in the storied organization, according to newly released court documents.

More than 7,800 individuals allegedly abused 12,254 victims, according to the court testimony.

These figures were released Tuesday by attorney Jeff Anderson, whose firm regularly represents victims of sexual abuse and has been involved in numerous clerical sexual abuse cases.

The new testimony was entered into the court record as part of a January trial about child sex abuse at a Minnesota children's theater company.

COMMENT:-

You know, I'm starting to wonder how much of the problem is the "I simply can't believe that that could possibly have happened." syndrome. My suspicion is that the answer is "a lot".
​
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

More than 12,000 Boy Scout members were victims of sexual abuse, expert says
​

An expert who has been working with the Boy Scouts revealed that there may have been as many as 7,819 allegedly sexually abusive troop leaders and volunteers in the storied organization, according to newly released court documents.

More than 7,800 individuals allegedly abused 12,254 victims, according to the court testimony.

These figures were released Tuesday by attorney Jeff Anderson, whose firm regularly represents victims of sexual abuse and has been involved in numerous clerical sexual abuse cases.

The new testimony was entered into the court record as part of a January trial about child sex abuse at a Minnesota children's theater company.

COMMENT:-

You know, I'm starting to wonder how much of the problem is the "I simply can't believe that that could possibly have happened." syndrome. My suspicion is that the answer is "a lot".
​
Click to expand...

I was associated with Boy Scouts, from the time my son was 6 until he was 18.
I simply could not see this happening the way our troop was set up.
Only dads with active kids were allowed as scout masters.
I am not saying it could be a problem, some parents saw Scouts as low cost baby sitting,
but I wonder if the statistic are higher or lower than the general population, and how long of a period
was the 12,000 number accumulated over?
 
This story sickens me. There is so much widespread abuse of children, especially from institutions that have such abundant access to them.

It seems to me that no adult should ever be left alone with children unless they are their parent at this rate. Who can you trust anymore, there is almost no way to sniff these people out before they abuse your children. Institutions jave to design their processes so that multiple adults are always present and no one gets private access for any reason. If you cannot provide that, then you shouldnt watch children.
 
longview said:
I was associated with Boy Scouts, from the time my son was 6 until he was 18.
I simply could not see this happening the way our troop was set up.
Only dads with active kids were allowed as scout masters.
I am not saying it could be a problem, some parents saw Scouts as low cost baby sitting,
but I wonder if the statistic are higher or lower than the general population, and how long of a period
was the 12,000 number accumulated over?
Click to expand...

That's much of the issue here. 1944-2016. This also appears to be additional analysis on old information - released some time ago. That information included any reports made in the counts of concerns, much of which happened prior to the 1980s when BSA struggled with how to better protect children, and without regard to the seriousness. (And many other organizations had the same struggle at the time). The number is huge - but much of that is due to the size of the organization, types of incidents reported, and timeframe involved. A similar analsis of a public school district would probably reveal a startling number as well.

BSA of today does an outstanding job with their efforts to protect children. Not to say incidents don't still happen, but they are few and isolated.
 
TrueScotsman said:
This story sickens me. There is so much widespread abuse of children, especially from institutions that have such abundant access to them.

It seems to me that no adult should ever be left alone with children unless they are their parent at this rate. Who can you trust anymore, there is almost no way to sniff these people out before they abuse your children. Institutions jave to design their processes so that multiple adults are always present and no one gets private access for any reason. If you cannot provide that, then you shouldnt watch children.
Click to expand...

FYI -- BSA has many of those protections in place - put into effect in the late 80's and strengthened over time. Every adult leader (including adults camping) is background checked (repeated regularly), and trained.
 
dcsports said:
FYI -- BSA has many of those protections in place - put into effect in the late 80's and strengthened over time. Every adult leader (including adults camping) is background checked (repeated regularly), and trained.
Click to expand...
I was a Boy Scout and there were repeated instances of only a single adult being around.

12,000 abused with perhaps almost as many as 8,000 abusers. Obviously something is broken, and the same thing is happening in religious establishments
 
dcsports said:
FYI -- BSA has many of those protections in place - put into effect in the late 80's and strengthened over time. Every adult leader (including adults camping) is background checked (repeated regularly), and trained.
Click to expand...

I am part of a group that works with youth and we too have that rule to never be less than two adults with the kids. Never have a one on one with a kid away from the group.
Not only does it protect the kids it might also protect you.


Have never been aware of any molestation of this group or any groups I have been involved with including the cub scouts and numerous sport teams.
 
TrueScotsman said:
I was a Boy Scout and there were repeated instances of only a single adult being around.

12,000 abused with perhaps almost as many as 8,000 abusers. Obviously something is broken, and the same thing is happening in religious establishments
Click to expand...

When were you a Boy Scout? Note that these policies and safeguards have been improved over time, so this would be less likely today. It's also largely dependent on volunteers following the policies - so it's hard to respond to your anecdotal situation.

And again, the vast majority of these incidents were a long time ago. It's not to say that there won't be isolated situations now, or that there coundn't be improvement, but to call the system 'broken' isn't accurate.
 
longview said:
I was associated with Boy Scouts, from the time my son was 6 until he was 18.
I simply could not see this happening the way our troop was set up.
Only dads with active kids were allowed as scout masters.
I am not saying it could be a problem, some parents saw Scouts as low cost baby sitting,
but I wonder if the statistic are higher or lower than the general population, and how long of a period
was the 12,000 number accumulated over?
Click to expand...

All good questions but the " simply can't believe that that could possibly have happened." attitude in some sectors of the administrative wing of the BSA is still quite likely - isn't it?

I mean you, yourself, said "I simply could not see this happening the way our troop was set up. Only dads with active kids were allowed as scout masters." and it is completely inconceivable that a father whose own sons were actively participating could even remotely have been a sexual predator - right?
 
dcsports said:
That's much of the issue here. 1944-2016. This also appears to be additional analysis on old information - released some time ago. That information included any reports made in the counts of concerns, much of which happened prior to the 1980s when BSA struggled with how to better protect children, and without regard to the seriousness. (And many other organizations had the same struggle at the time). The number is huge - but much of that is due to the size of the organization, types of incidents reported, and timeframe involved. A similar analsis of a public school district would probably reveal a startling number as well.

BSA of today does an outstanding job with their efforts to protect children. Not to say incidents don't still happen, but they are few and isolated.
Click to expand...

AND, to its credit, the BSA, unlike some other large organizations which had "persons of authority" in positions where they could, and did, abuse children, has actually admitted that the incidents happened (and that their failure of institutional oversight increased the number of incidents) resounds to its credit. The BSA, unlike some other large organizations which had "persons of authority" in positions where they could, and did, abuse children, had no practice (which doesn't rise to the level of "official policy") of simply moving those people from positions where they got caught abusing children to other positions where no one knew that they had been caught abusing children in the past.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
All good questions but the " simply can't believe that that could possibly have happened." attitude in some sectors of the administrative wing of the BSA is still quite likely - isn't it?

I mean you, yourself, said "I simply could not see this happening the way our troop was set up. Only dads with active kids were allowed as scout masters." and it is completely inconceivable that a father whose own sons were actively participating could even remotely have been a sexual predator - right?
Click to expand...
From my perspective, fairly unlikely, but that is a narrow view based on my own perception and experience.
 
dcsports said:
When were you a Boy Scout? Note that these policies and safeguards have been improved over time, so this would be less likely today. It's also largely dependent on volunteers following the policies - so it's hard to respond to your anecdotal situation.

And again, the vast majority of these incidents were a long time ago. It's not to say that there won't be isolated situations now, or that there coundn't be improvement, but to call the system 'broken' isn't accurate.
Click to expand...
1990s-Early 2000s, was raised Mormon so scouting was huge. It will take time to tell how things have improved, but this is a horrific report which I feel like is being met with dismissal by Conservatives.

Perhaps some self reflection on the degree to which conservative institutions have inculcated environments where these things happen, and that it takes so long for the public to find out that it is happening. This is a larger societal issue, but there is no doubt children are especially vulnerable in these contexts. Given the track record, the bar needs to be set tremendously high and transparency is paramount.
 
TrueScotsman said:
1990s-Early 2000s, was raised Mormon so scouting was huge. It will take time to tell how things have improved, but this is a horrific report which I feel like is being met with dismissal by Conservatives.

Perhaps some self reflection on the degree to which conservative institutions have inculcated environments where these things happen, and that it takes so long for the public to find out that it is happening. This is a larger societal issue, but there is no doubt children are especially vulnerable in these contexts. Given the track record, the bar needs to be set tremendously high and transparency is paramount.
Click to expand...

Yes... a time when they were sorting things out.

Painting organizations or people with a broad brush is silly. Focusing on this organization... this information came out a long time ago, BSA long ago said there was an issue, and took tremendous steps to change course and protect children.

What are you expecting from 'conservatives' or anyone else. This is not new information.
 
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