Last week, Boy Scouts of America released a portion of what are known as the “perversion files” by order of an Oregon court. The perversion files were created for adult volunteers accused of sexually abusing minors in Boy Scouts. These files clearly show that Boy Scouts of America has been covering up child sex abuse and shielding pedophiles from criminal prosecution for decades.
In many cases, when Boy Scouts officials were the first to be notified of the child sex abuse, they would allow the abuser to quietly resign and would not contact the police. Even worse, many pedophile volunteers were eventually allowed to rejoin the Boy Scouts. This approach to the rampant child sex abuse within the Boy Scouts facilitated the sexual abuse of countless young children.
As a Chicago trial lawyer with extensive experience handling child sex abuse cases, I am not the slightest bit surprised that the Boy Scouts of America covered up child sex abuse and protected pedophile volunteers for decades. Inexplicably, the most common response to child sex abuse by officials of organizations, whether it be a church, the Boy Scouts, or a university, is to avoid bringing the abusers to justice to protect the organization, while more and more innocent children are victimized.
