Child Sex Abuse, Boy Scouts Of America | featured news

Amid reports of widespread sexual abuse of children in the late 1980s, several leading youth organizations began conducting criminal background checks of volunteers and staff members. Big Brothers Big Sisters ordered the checks for all volunteers starting in 1986. Boys and Girls Clubs of America recommended their use the same year. One of the nation's oldest and largest youth groups, however, was opposed — the Boy Scouts of America.

Increased public awareness of how child predators operate, along with better law enforcement and policies to protect children, may be helping to reduce child sex abuse despite this year's headlines about cases connected to institutions like Penn State, the Boy Scouts and the BBC....

An Oregon jury finds the Boy Scouts of America negligent in a case of repeated sexual abuse by an assistant Scoutmaster in the 1980s and awards the plaintiff $1.4 million.

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