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It is disturbing that so many incidents of sexual abuse of children have occurred in recent decades, however there is a glimmer of hope that organizations like the Catholic Church are becoming increasingly forthcoming in revealing the episodes and exercising more transparency to avoid future abuse. Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts of America are not nearly so as transparent.
The numbers are horrifying. A sprinkling of reports of scouts sexually abused by leaders have come out in recent years, but as the reports become more and more common, a virtual tidal wave of incidents have come to light. In a recent report, the Boy Scouts of America had over 7,800 perpetrators among its leaders and volunteers. Over 12,000 children were victims. These figures were reported by Dr. Janet Warren, who is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia’s medical school. The Boy Scouts hired Dr. Warren to analyze the prevalence of the problem, and has reviewed data between 1944 and 2016.
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