Flutterby™! : Boy Scouts & sexual abuse

These Men Say the Boy Scouts' Sex Abuse Problem Is Worse Than Anyone Knew

This isn’t the first time the Boy Scouts have been accused of protecting pedophiles and allowing them to move from troop to troop. Hundreds of individual sex abuse cases have been brought against the Scouts over the last several decades, and in 2010, a judge ordered the organization to make public an internal list of men accused of preying on boys. Within Scout headquarters, the list was known as the “P Files” or “Perversion Files.” In January, a child abuse expert hired by the Boy Scouts to analyze the files testified that she found 12,254 boys had reported experiencing sexual abuse at the hands of at least 7,800 suspected assailants between 1944 and 2016. Academics who research child sex abuse tell TIME that number is likely a gross underestimation. Many boys were likely intimidated or shamed out of reporting their assailants, who often held influential positions in local churches, schools, or businesses.