According to a team of lawyers representing Boy Scout abuse victims, Scouting leaders molested children in over 1,300 cities and Boy Scout camps across the United States, some locations listed multiple times. Given the number of alleged Scouting abuse survivors who have stepped forward and partnered with law firms across the country, the number of locations could actually be much higher.
Attorneys with Abused in Scouting (AIS), a trio of law firms representing survivors of Boy Scout of America (BSA) sexual abuse, collected the names, locations, and troop numbers of alleged Boy Scout abuse as provided by their clients. After compiling the reports together, AIS’s clients named 1,337 locations where Boy Scout leaders sexually abused children. Some of the cities and camps listed were named multiple times by different clients, allegations spanning across the decades.
Over the years, increasing ex-Scouts have come forward and shared horror stories of being violently molested by leaders in the BSA. Claims from men as old as 90 and boys as young as eight claim Scoutmasters and volunteers in the BSA took advantage of them as children, subjecting them to brutal forms of abuse including rape, molestation, fondling, and sodomy.
According to secret records kept by the BSA, sexual predators in the Scouts was no secret. From as early as 1910, the founding year of the Boy Scouts of America, the youth organization tucked away reports of child abuse in secret files known as “Perversion Files.” These reports listed the names of sexual predators in the Scouts, which were seldom to never turned over to local authorities. Leaders in the BSA even admit that reports considered “expired” due to time were destroyed, potentially leaving thousands of abuse cases unheard and letting thousands of pedophiles walk free.
In the reports collected by AIS, cities that had many reports of Scouting abuse include Baltimore, MD; Boulder CO; Brooklyn, NY; Cincinnati OH; Cimarron, NM; Denver, CO; Wichita, KS; and St. Louis, MO. To see the full map of reported Scouting abuse locations, click here.
On the map of reported Scouting abuse locations, AIS provides the names and contact information of congressional representatives linked to with each reported area of abuse. AIS encourages Scouting abuse survivors to call their Congress representative and demand they hold the BSA accountable for failing to protect children from pedophiles.
Boy Scouts of America Bankruptcy
With thousands of sexual abuse lawsuits pending against them, the BSA filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy February 2020. Now, advocates for Scouting abuse survivors and BSA officials are in discussions with the Bankruptcy Court in an effort to reach a settlement to the massive sexual abuse litigation pending against the youth organization.
Recently, the Bankruptcy Court announced Scouting abuse survivors have until November 16, 2020 to file claims against the BSA related to their abuse. After that deadline, all sexual abuse claims against the BSA will be barred. AIS encourages Scouting abuse survivors to come forward now and seek legal help before the deadline passes, which may forever bar them from justice against the BSA.