The boy scouts have long been a pinnacle of American youth culture, but the organization
is now engulfed in a media firestorm concerning its cover up of thousands of cases of sex
abuse amongst scout leaders and volunteers.
Legal journalist Mollye Barrows joins us now to break it down.
Mollye, just how rampant is this?
Is this another, is this, is this media hysteria that we so often see?
It's, it's very rampant.
Similar to what you saw with the Catholic church.
You heard accusations for years and then as they looked into it they realized that it
spanned decades and that's what you're seeing with the boy scouts.
This particular group of attorneys called Abused In Scouting formed in February and
they began their own investigation looking into accusations that spanned eight decades.
And so it went back like from 1944 all the way to the present time and they found 350
previously unknown adult scoutmasters and members who are alleged abusers.
And so there is just a wave of lawsuits that's coming out of Philadelphia where one particular
lawsuit was filed earlier this month and that particular group of attorneys said that they've
got literally dozens and dozens and dozens of other accusations of, of people who said
that they were molested and abused by scoutmasters over many years.
Same, same type of course that obviously the Catholic church, exactly the same kind of
course.
Yes.
We got a scout master here.
Then they move them to point B and then they move them to point C. They know what's going
on.
Right.
They're afraid that if they disclose what's going on that's going to hurt the image of
the scouts, so they covered up at the highest levels.
Right.
You know these, this, there's no difference here.
I mean it, it just has played itself out time and time.
What, what I find amazing about this case is that it's taken so long to surface.
I remember rumblings about it about maybe 10 years ago and then it kind of disappeared
and then when I went to take, took a look, it disappeared because there was money that
exchanged hands to make it disappear.
Yes.
How old are these accusers and what, what types of abuses are they saying they suffered?
You know, going, and I haven't seen every complaint for each of the victims, alleged
victims that have filed, but the one that this particular group Abused In Scouting represented
in the first lawsuit that was filed in the Philadelphia area.
He said he was 12 or 13 when the abuse started.
He said he was abused dozens of times by this particular scoutmaster.
And this seems to mirror the accusations that are coming from these kids, that they were
left vulnerable to these predators because the, the organization did little to vet volunteers
or to vet these scoutmasters or even when they were made aware of complaints, they basically
swept them under the rug or did what they could to hide these accusations.
So the accusations are essentially what you hear in many accusations of child molestation,
that these kids were groomed.
That these people sought after the children that were going to be the easiest to abuse,
if you will.
They created a relationship with the vulnerable.
Well, what I find interesting is there, they actually have something called perversion
files or that's what's gotten the name of the perversion files.
Yes.
It's just like the, the, the Catholic church had something similar.
Who are our, who are our pervert priests?
How do we make them go away?
How can we hide them?
Yes.
So these are perversion files.
These people aren't dressed up like priests, they're dressed up like little boys, I guess.
At any rate, so you've got the perversion files.
Talk about it a little bit.
Well, it's so interesting and it goes back again to this investigation that these attorneys
did.
And I think, you know, and I don't know this, but in light of what happened with the investigation
to the Catholic Church and numerous other organizations that covered up perpetual systematic
abuse, these perversion files are essentially where the Boy Scouts of America, according
to these particular victims and according to this organization that looked into it,
where they filed away these accusations of this scoutmaster did this and this year and
this person did that and this year.
And these allegations were always against children and this particular expert that this
group hired to look into this found some almost 8,000 Boy Scout sexual misconduct perpetrators
and over 12,000 victims.
And this is between 1944 in 2016.
So it's again, it's also during this time period when people don't want to come forward
and talk about it.
That's why so many of these victims are so much older.
And again, you have laws that were about the statute of limitations that prevented them
from being able to come forward.
So I think, you know, in the overall context, it's made it easier to come forward with these
allegations.
People are willing to listen and then maybe potentially adjust the laws accordingly.
By the way, I saw an article about this maybe six months ago and it was talking about the
notion, it's almost like the Catholic set, that they're rule followers.
Yes.
Okay.
That you talk about the, the, it's almost like the older scout guide knows that this
is a rule follower.
Let me go after this rule follower, just like the Catholic Church.
This, this boy who is, you know, works there and every Sunday he's a rule follower.
It's really interesting when you, when you talk about that psychology.
Yes.
Iconoclast who says, you know what, I'm not a rule follower.
I know when the, I know when the Boy Scout, you know, Boy Scout leader ain't right..
Right.
And I know when the priest is not right.
And I, and, and it's within me enough to say I'm going to distance myself from this person.
But then if you have a child that maybe has a troubled background or even if they don't,
maybe their personality makeup is just such that they're not boat rockers.
Yeah.
They don't want to go against or rebel against authority and so they become victims of these
guys.
But the other interesting part is that, basically New York has passed a law that allows a one
year window for some of these older victims to be able to present their charges.
And of course, that leads to the financial impact that it's going to have against the
organizations like the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.
They’re not gonna, they're not going to weather this.
They're not going to, if it's as bad as I think it could be.
Whatever it takes for accountability, which is what you know best.
Exactly, close them down if they need to be closed down.
Yes.
Thank you for joining me Mollye.
Thanks Pap.