USA: over 80,000 allegations of abuse against Boy Scouts

For decades, American Boy Scouts had not reported child abuse cases within the organization to the relevant authorities. In order to be able to pay compensation to the victims of sexual abuse, the association had already filed for bankruptcy in the spring – so that a compensation fund could be established for the victims and not the entire assets of the organization had to be used for the legal fees.

Now the Boy Scouts of America face allegations of abuse from more than 80,000 former members of the youth organization. The suspected victims of abuse were able to make claims until Monday evening.

The deadline expired on Monday

The total number of compensation claims should ultimately be eight times the approximately 11,000 claims against the Catholic Church in the United States, victim attorney Andrew Van Arsdale said. The number far exceeds the initial projections of the opera’s lawyers. Under the terms of the case, no further sexual abuse lawsuits against Boy Scouts can be filed after Monday.

“We are shocked at the number of lives affected by previous abuse by Boy Scouts,” the youth organization said. The suffering of those affected cannot be reversed. Victims should now be compensated. “It breaks our heart that we cannot undo his pain.”

The organization, with around 2.2 million members nationwide, filed for bankruptcy in February due to a large number of lawsuits. Offsetting must now be processed through a fund. A bankruptcy court in the state of Delaware is responsible, which set the deadline for the complaint to be Monday evening. The Boy Scouts’ assets are estimated at around one billion dollars (845 million euros).

Allegations of abuse against boy scout youth leaders went public in 2012 through revelations in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. At that time, these were allegations of around 500 alleged victims. The Boy Scouts reported the fewest cases to the authorities (read more here).

Most of the ongoing sexual abuse lawsuits date back to the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, before criminal background checks and abuse prevention training were introduced for all staff and volunteers.