I was a leader in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from about 1981-1995. At the time, I was also friends with Bob Mazzuca, who served as Chief Scout Executive from 2007-2012 (our kids were classmates). Since I did background investigations for a living, I did informal reference checks on everyone I took on as an adult leader. I found two where there was a question, so I quietly disposed of their applications and didn't allow them to work with kids. It wasn't anything definite, so I did not pass the information on to Scout headquarters.

There was a big problem with sexual molestation uncovered by the Boy Scouts in the 1980s. The Scouts instituted a system of "two-deep leadership," where individual adults were never allowed to be along with a boy, and every event had to have at least two adult leaders. I think this precaution worked quite well, although no precaution is perfect. I believe the Scouts were challenged by the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), who demanded their right to have loving relationships with boys. The Scouts did work hard to prevent child molestation, and they have continued to do so. In hindsight, it wasn't enough, so now the lawsuits will start rolling in.

The Scouts also got legislation passed in many states which allowed or required fingerprinting of adult leaders in youth organizations. Adult volunteers also received training on how to prevent sexual abuse.

Why did the Scouts keep their "perversion files" secret? I'm guessing, but I suppose it was because the information was gathered informally, through hearsay information and confidential witnesses. Most certainly, some of the information collected in such files is inaccurate, and disclosure of such information could subject the Scouts to lawsuits.

And there's probably another reason - disclosure of such information would cause panic among parents, and might trigger a huge drop in membership. And most likely, such a panic would be far out of proportion with the threat.

The Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church have close parallels in this area. Both organizations actually did a lot of work and spent a lot of money to prevent child molestation. The Catholic Church started spending large amounts of money on this problem as far back as the 1960s. The Boy Scout problem surfaced more recently, but the Scouts were hard at work on this problem as early as the 1980s.

Jack Campin, I think you are correct - while an organization must pay attention to all allegations and hints of misconduct, disclosing such information can be a very bad policy.

-Joe-