As sexual abuse laws protecting victims have improved in recent years, the number of sex abuse cases facing major institutions in the United States has skyrocketed. One of the most commonly cited defendants in these cases is the Boy Scouts of America.

Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts have a rather long history with abuse, a history which is laid out in the Boy Scout perversion files.

What Are the Boy Scout Perversion Files?

The Boy Scout perversion files are a list of scout leaders who have allegedly committed abuse against scouts. The list includes the names of nearly 8,000 scout leaders all the way back to 1944. The files also include the names of more than 12,000 victims, according to NBC News. The list was created by the organization to help them screen for potential abusers and to ensure that those on the lists never worked with the organization again.

The Boy Scout Perversion Files were first reported on in 2012 when the organization released just over 1,200 cases of known or suspected scout leaders who abused children in response to a lawsuit. These cases covered the years 1965 to 1985  and showed a history of “hardball tactics” used by the Scouts to make it harder for victims to receive compensation.

What Information Do the Boy Scout Perversion Files Contain?

The contents of the Boy Scout Perversion Files have not been known for long, and many details are still unclear due to the tight hold the organization keeps on the documents.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the files contain at least 1,900 files and 3,100 case summaries. These cases cover the years 1947 to 2005. The LA Times has created a database of roughly 5,000 men and women who were removed from the Scouts due to suspicion of sexual abuse. In the database, readers will find the name of the accused, the year of the accusation, the city and state in which the scout leader was based at the time, and the troop number. Entries also include a PDF of the original accusation. Some entries are incomplete.

The LA Times reports that, beyond those cases they have access to, the Boy Scouts “purged” an unknown number of cases from the files in the 1990s. Indeed, most legal experts agree that the number of abusers is probably much higher than any number given so far.

Why Were the Boy Scout Perversion Files Released?

The Scouts have shown considerable resistance to revealing the contents of the Boy Scout perversion files. In fact, each new bit of information that has been revealed was only provided due to court orders connected to abuse lawsuits.

According to Time, the Boy Scouts were first ordered to reveal the files in 2010 as a result of one of the hundreds of individual cases being brought against the organization at the time.

However, the most significant revelation came in 2019 from Dr. Janet Warren. As NBC News reports, Dr. Warren was contracted by the Scouts to evaluate their abuse response from 1944 to 2016. A large portion of her worked involved the Boy Scout perversion files. While testifying during an unrelated child sex abuse case, Warren stated that the files held the names of 7,819 alleged abusers and 12,254 alleged victims.

According to the Scouts, “all the names on the [Boy Scout perversion files list] are publicly available” and all of those named on the list have been removed from service with the organization.

How Did the Boy Scouts Respond?

The Boy Scouts have had something of a mixed response to the revelation of the Boy Scout perversion files, in part because of questions regarding their treatment of alleged abusers and the communities they served. Lawyers representing alleged victims of some of those on the list claim that the Boy Scouts of America have never alerted communities that this scout leader, this coach, this teacher is known to be a child molester,” according to reporting by NBC. Meanwhile, the Scouts claim they acted appropriately.

“At no time have we ever knowingly allowed a sexual predator to work with youth, and we mandate that all leaders, volunteers and staff members nationwide immediately report any abuse allegations to law enforcement,” the Scouts said in a statement.

However, some critics say that these records provided in the Boy Scout Perversion Files are not sufficient to protect children, as information in the files indicates that the organization did not response sufficiently to allegations of abuse. 

CNN explains that though the organization has touted that they report “every instance of suspected abuse” to legal authorities, a mentioned above, there is little information about whether or not these reports led to prosecution of an alleged abuser. In particular, critics have criticized the Boy Scouts’ previous release of only partial records as an indication that they are invested in concealing the full extent of the problem of sexual abuse.

TIME reports on such alleged instance. In one example, a Scout Master was accused of sexual abuse of a child, and was removed from his position. However, TIME says that in that case, though the Scout Master was fired, a police report was never filed over the incident.

As a result of more public accounts of abuse within the Boy Scouts of America, the Boy Scouts have now faced around 300 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse. This has taken a financial toll on the organization, worsened by the reality that now, this extensive litigation has made insurers more wary of working with the organization.

Now, the organization has turned to bankruptcy in an effort to avoid facing the full financial affects of these allegations, explains PBS. Reportedly, the assets of Boy Scouts of America were listed between $1 billion and $10 billion, while its liabilities were listed at between $500 million and $1 billion.

Are the Files Open to the Public?

Currently, the Boy Scout perversion files are available to the public in some limited forms — most notably, the LA Times database which attempts to include each entry and each accused member. It’s worth noting that this database is necessarily incomplete given the fact that they list 5,000 abusers but Dr. Warren claimed there were files on nearly 8,000.

Furthermore, many sources, from victim advocates to lawyers, have claimed that the files are far from complete and the Scouts may know the names of more accused abusers.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.