A Deeper Look at the Boy Scouts of America "Perversion" Files: Structural Factors Related to Access and Abuse.

The Boy Scouts of America's (BSA's) Ineligible Volunteer (IV) files, commonly called the "perversion files," is a unique data set allowing researchers to examine organizational characteristics that allow for child sexual victimization. Despite the uniqueness of this data set, few researchers have examined it. The researchers examined a random sample of cases from the IV files of scout leaders who molested scouts. A situational crime theoretical model was employed as had been used in studies on the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, proving effective. The researchers examined randomly selected from 1980 to 1999. Of initially examined 400 randomly selected cases, only 140 held retrievable data. The majority of the 140 cases did not have scouting victims, which resulted in a reduction to 48 cases. Beyond the several scouting forms, many files contained public domain information, including newspaper articles, police reports, criminal justice records, and/or records of civil litigation. Through both the scouting documents and the public domain records, the researchers identified six BSA-specific characteristics that allowed motivated adult leaders to molest their victims. These characteristics included (a) weak or inefficient incident reporting system, (b) failure to collect and review pertinent information, (c) organizationally legitimate reasons for one-on-one contact, (d) volunteer imbalance, (e) legitimate reasons for separation from protective adults, and (f) social status as a prophylactic defense. These structural characteristics are explored through descriptive statistics and specific case studies illustrating the phenomena. When the history of the IV files came to light through litigation, the BSA was forced to reconcile its past actions and develop new preventive measures. The Boy Scouts of America implemented various actions to protect the youth. Many of these protections specifically address structural characteristics.

Rape myth acceptance among students attending a historically black college (HBCU): implications for intervention design.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines rape myth acceptance among students attending a Historically Black College (HBCU). PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and thirty two students participated in the study. Methods: A survey consisting of demographic questions and the Updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA) was distributed using an anonymous paper questionnaire to students on campus. RESULTS: Analysis of the scale indicate a moderate to high rejection of rape myths regardless of gender, with the highest acceptance in both genders of the "She Lied" subscale. Both male and female students were likely to agree that a girl would lie about being raped to get even with a guy or after a sexual encounter that she regretted. Gender differences were found in the "She asked for it" subscale, with men having a statistically significant higher acceptance than women. CONCLUSIONS: These results have implications for the design and implementation of targeted sexual assault interventions on HBCU campuses.

A Case Study of the Perversion Files: An Application of Lanning and Dietz "Commonly Misunderstood Phenomena".

The fight against child sexual abuse has been hindered by the refusal of many public organizations to release information or to report allegations of misconduct. Brought to the public's attention only when the accused is a well-known person, organizations designed to support children in many aspects of their lives have allowed for decades of abuse to go unchecked. In October of 2012, the Oregon Supreme court ordered the Boy Scouts of American (BSA) to release 14,500 pages of confidential files detailing sexual abuse allegations from 1959 to 1985. The so-called "perversion files" are the single largest collection of information on alleged perpetrators of sexual molestation against youth. The BSA data represented a unique opportunity to examine demographic information from a large sample of purported sexual offenders from across the country over a vast period of time. Additionally, the sexual offenders were not exclusively located in the criminal justice system since BSA officials referred only a small percentage of offenders to law enforcement. The study analyzed a random sample to ascertain description of the actions used by the individuals identified in the perversion files. These were then analyzed to explain why these individuals might have gone unnoticed or their actions unreported by the BSA volunteers.