Slatest brings this LAT report to our attention:
Hundreds of alleged child molesters were not reported to police by Boy Scouts of America officials over two decades, often giving the abusers a chance to quietly resign rather than risk a hit to the organization’s reputation. The Los Angeles Times reviewed 1,600 of the Boy Scouts’ confidential “perversion files” dated from 1970 to 1991 and found more than 500 cases in which officials learned about abuse directly. In around 80 percent of those cases, there is no record of the Scouts reporting the claims of abuse to authorities and in more than 100 cases there seems to be clear evidence of efforts to hide the abuse. Worst of all, there are clear signs that some of the abusers went on to hurt other children.
Lawyers for the Boy Scouts have been working hard to keep the “perversion files,” which the organization has used since 1919, out of the public eye. Yet as more of them become public, the Boy Scouts could soon face a wave of litigation across the country, although in many states statutes of limitation will prevent the victims from suing. Boy Scout officials insist they’ve improved their internal process to protect children, noting that since 2010 they require officials to report even the suspicion of abuse to authorities.
Which suggests several things:
- Golly, I didn’t know so many Boy Scout leaders were Catholic priests! Because, you know, to hear some people talk, that’s the only group that engages in this sort of behavior — even though the evidence indicates that this perversion is no more prevalent among Catholics than among any other group.
- I had always sort of supposed that the failure to take prosecutorial action on the part of the Church was because of the nature of the organization — that it simply isn’t geared toward punishment of wrongdoing, that it is oriented toward hearing confessions and then granting absolution, however heinous the sin. The Scouts’ failure to report these cases indicates that the problem of letting abusers go free is a more universal problem.
- Social conservatives will no doubt respond that the mean ol’ media are picking on the Scouts, as they do the Church, on account of it not being on board with this or that “liberal agenda.” And we’re off to the Kultukampf races…
- And then there’s my own difficulty in ever believing such statistics, which “realists” will scoff at. But I just have always found it difficult to believe that there’s even one person on the planet that would want to sexually abuse children. Much less 500 of them in one organization. I’m not saying it’s not true. I’m just saying it’s kind of mind-blowing.
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Never underestimate the cowardly, deceitful things that people will do to cover up misdeeds.
I’m an Eagle Scout, and I have no sympathy for BSA if they knowingly covered up sexual abuse.
No excuses.
Was your first, visceral response to this story really the sort of “Ah-ha! We’re not the only ones…” that comes across in your first bullet? Because that comes across as…let’s say it’s hard to empathize with. I’m not trying to attack you here or be self-righteous, but I’ve been reading this since before you left the State and have never seen you write something as disturbing as I found that.
Does this really seem like a Kulturkampf thing? I tend to think of those broadly as rooted as differences between the perception of right/wrong…this is not that kind of issue. I feel like people who play it that way are identifying with the victimizers, not the victims.
Having been a boy scout and witnessing hazing and other assorted incidents of less than honorable behavior (no acts of sexual abuse though) on the part of scout leaders this comes as zero surprise.
Interesting that Brad continues to defend the Catholic priests with this “they are no worse than anyone else” screed. What happens if it turns out that many of the scout leaders charged with the abuse were Catholic clergy. That would be pretty tough to defend but the deniers will always find a way.
When we demonize child molesters, we make it very hard to believe that ordinary people can be child molesters. We discount children’s reports because we don’t want to believe them.
If we had more compassion for these damaged people instead of bloodthirsty vengeance, we might be better able to protect our children, and break the cycle.
Yeah, well… despite what I said above, I still think it was the “oh, the poor sinner” attitude that helped, at least in part, get the Church in trouble.
And is it POSSIBLE to “break the cycle?” Isn’t this one of those things for which we know of no “cure”?
Execution would cure it.
Sex offenders need to be identified and kept away from children. How drastic the measures need to be varies. However, we make them out to be monsters, and Father Pete or Scoutmaster Ron isn’t a monster, so he mustn’t be a child molester. Molesters are damaged, not monsters. The hysteria that surrounds the issue is counterproductive.
We break the cycle by preventing further victims, who then go on in many cases to become victimizers. We deal with predators rationally, thoroughly, effectively, but not excessively punitively. We segregate them.
You are less likely to out a suspected molester if you have doubts, and often you do, if you fear the sort of ” just kill them all to be on the safe side” attitudes. False accusations have been made, and lives ruined.
From the Reuters story:
” The files will be released within three to four weeks, said Paul Mones, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff in the Oregon case.
In the wake of revelations about systemic child sex abuse within the Catholic Church and the recent Penn State sex abuse scandal, the files threaten to damage the reputation of one of America’s most trusted institutions.
Mones said the allegations revealed in the Oregon case are not necessarily comparable to the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal.
“In the Catholic Church there were overt cover-ups, and I don’t think you see a lot of that here with the Boy Scouts,” Mones told Reuters on Sunday.”
So the lawyer for one of the Boy Scout plaintiff says the Catholic Church was more egregious in its coverup. You’d think a plaintiff’s lawyer would say this case was worse.
It’s a little hard not to be totally freaked out by this, when you have kids and grandkids. It really hurts to think about it, even for a moment.
“Yeah, well… despite what I said above, I still think it was the “oh, the poor sinner” attitude that helped, at least in part, get the Church in trouble.”
I guess the “poor sinner” who broke the Omerto Code of the Vatican, the Pope’s butler, didn’t get the same break as the pedophile priests and coverup bishops.
He tries to expose corruption and “evil” (his term) in the Church, and he faces 6 years in an Italian prison.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-pope-butlerbre88g0xs-20120917,0,459901.story
The problem is that organizations (including the BSA) that hold themselves as somehow keeping the flames of righteousness believe that once you are right, you no longer have to be good.
Any institution will seek to protect itself. This action leads to institutions keeping crimes (including child molestation) quiet, even though the institution’s reputation would be better off if it reported the crime. Its a matter of shame and ‘saving face.’ The more shameful the crime, the less likely it is to be reported. Strict rules which demand report help, but do not guarantee institutional cooperation.
I don’t doubt that forgiveness of sinners is part of the Catholic Church’s response to abuse. However, I suspect that protection of the institution ranks even higher as a motive for cover-ups. People can be forgiven by God for their sins while still facing appropriate legal punishment for their crimes. Christian forgiveness is also compatible with depriving abusive criminals of opportunities to continue committing their crimes. Indeed, it is my understanding that divine forgiveness requires a firm intention to refrain from continuing the sin. A priest (or a scout leader, or a teacher) should appreciate help in carrying out that intention by removal from easy opportunities to continue their sins.
But overreacting hurts, not helps!
As an Eagle Scout who was in the BSA faithfully from 1982-89, I can say that I only ran into one leader of questionable motives. It was summer camp in ’85 and the guy struck my patrol as “weird”. Later we found out that he was no longer allowed to be in our camp. I’m just glad that he didn’t victimze anyone. We never knew if he had done anything wrong. I just assume he crossed some kind of line. When you’re at that age, any attention seems well intended. Thank goodness nothing happened to us.
I agreed with John until his last sentence. That didn’t seem fair of him; yours is an institutional support – though I take you at your word that children come first even before religion.
The thing about these monsters is that they are real people, engaged in many roles in life. Maybe that is less true of priests – being more one-dimensional, not less real. But scout leaders have more societal connections – work, family, activities and religion. Lots of people share responsibility for allowing their perversion to impact children. Most of all the pervert.