Boy Scouts release abuse files
PORTLAND: The Boy Scouts of America plan to begin doing what critics argue they should have done decades ago – bring suspected abusers named in the organisation’s so-called perversion files to the attention of police departments and sheriff ’s offices across the country.
The Scouts have, until now, argued they did all they could to prevent sex abuse within their ranks by spending a century tracking paedophiles and using those records to keep known sex offenders out of their organisation. But a court-ordered release of the perversion files from 1965 to 1985, expected this month, has prompted Scouts spokesman Deron Smith to say the organisation will go back into the files and report any offenders who may have fallen through the cracks. That could prompt a new round of criminal prosecutions for offenders who have so far escaped justice, said Josh Marquis, Clatsop County, Oregon, district attorney.
But investigations may require more than what the files provide, including victims willing to co-operate.”Let’s even assume the suspect confessed,” Marquis said. “An uncorroborated confession is not sufficient for a conviction.”
Many states have no statutes of limitations for children victimised when they were younger than 16, allowing for arrests of decade-old crimes.
The Scouts began keeping the files shortly after their creation in 1910, when paedophilia was largely a crime dealt with privately. The organisation argues that the files helped them protect children.