MARQUIS: BOY SCOUTS SCANDAL

Boy Scouts of America Child Abuse Scandal

Aubrey Marquis

Purdue University

COM 60311: Seminar in Crisis Communication

Mr. David Shaffer

January 24, 2020

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Boy Scouts of America Child Abuse Scandal

Brought to the United States from the coast of southern England, Boy Scouts of America

(BSA) was established in 1910 with the mission to prepare young males to make ethical and

moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them “good citizenship, chivalrous behavior,

and all of the skills that arise from camping and outdoor activities'' (Britannica, n.d.). The

organization has thousands of troops across the United States that are divided into individual

patrols and administered by volunteers with support of paid professional staff. Each patrol holds

their own meetings and are sponsored on the local level “by churches, schools, fraternal

organizations, and other community groups” (Britannica, n.d.). Currently, the scouting

organization is composed of approximately 2.2 million youth members between the ages of 5

and 21 and approximately 800,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and

its territories (Boy Scouts, 2021).

Less than 10 years after the organization set sail in the United States, BSA was faced

with its first claims of child sexual abuse, and by 1935, the organization secretly removed

thousands of abusers (Abused in Scouting, 2019). Although a handful of allegations were

brought to court and became public knowledge, BSA kept the majority of them confidential and

never contacted the police (Duggan, 2012). While these past allegations and court cases caused

issues for BSA, one of the organization’s most shocking crises did not unleash until its 20,000

page document of records detailing child sexual abuse allegations was publicly released on

October 18, 2012 (Claiborne et al., 2012). According to ABC News, the files contained

allegation claims of more than 1,000 Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts across the United States from

1959 to 1991, and featured detailed information about the abuse incident, the offender, and

BSA’s response to the allegations (Claiborne et al., 2012; Cubellis, 2015).

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Since the release of the records, hundreds of men and boys have come forward for the

first time with accounts of rape and assault suffered as children at the hands of scoutmasters and

other BSA volunteers (Dockterman, 2020). In 2018, BSA faced so many lawsuits that the

organization’s insurance companies began to refuse to pay out damages and argued that BSA

was “liable for the abuse because they could have taken steps to prevent it” (Dockterman, 2020).

In February 2020, BSA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware to “equitably compensate

victims while ensuring scouting continues across the country” (Scouting Newsroom 2020). In the

same bankruptcy court, BSA met its current and largest crisis after a judge established the

deadline of November 16, 2020, for any BSA sexual abuse victims to step forward and file

allegation claims (Levine, 2020). To the surprise of BSA, the lawyers working the cases, and the

public, over 92,700 claims were reported before the deadline closed (Levine, 2020).

As a result of the recent uncovering of an astronomical number of victims, BSA is

currently facing a serious financial and reputational crisis. According to Sellnow and Seeger

(2013), a crisis is defined as “a specific, unexpected, non-routine event or series of events that

creates high levels of uncertainty and a significant or perceived threat to high priority goals” (p.

7). In line with this definition, BSA’s situation classifies as a crisis due to the thousands of recent

and unexpected allegation claims that have created uncertainty among stakeholders as well as

anger and distrust. It is also a crisis because BSA has dealt with sexual abuse allegations in the

past and has already been given the opportunity to learn from its errors. As Sellnow and Seeger

(2013) note, when an organization does not acknowledge feedback or learn from minor failures it

is “far more likely to experience major crises or face repeated crises” (p. 77). In this case, BSA

did not learn from its direct experience with previous failures and is now facing the aftermath of

its unethical actions.

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Although BSA has begun to insinuate changes to its policy, structure, and attitude, the

organization has yet to fully enter the healing phase of the learning process that allows BSA and

its stakeholders to reconstitute themselves and move past the crisis. Since this crisis was deemed

a “preventable cluster,” meaning that BSA is believed to have triggered the crisis and attributed

the strongest level of crisis responsibility, the organization is going to have to implement a

strategic combination of response strategies in order to regain the trust of its stakeholders,

participants, families, and the public.

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References

Abused In Scouting. (2019, October 24). History of Abuse. https://abusedinscouting.com/history

-of-abuse/

Boy Scouts of America. (2021, January 06). Prepared. For Life.™. https://www.scouting.org/

Britannica. (n.d.). Boy Scouts. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boy-Scouts

Claiborne, R., Adhikari, B., & Francis, E. (2012, October 18). Release Files Detail Alleged
Abuse in Boy Scouts. https://abcnews.go.com/US/released-files-detail-alleged-abuse-
boy-scouts/story?id=17512745

Cubellis, M. (2015). Sexual Victimization, Disclosure, and Accountability: Organizational

Responses of the Boy Scouts of America to Child Sexual Abuse. https://academicwor
ks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/893/

Dockterman, E. (2020, November 17). Boy Scouts Sexual Abuse Case: What Could Happen
Next. https://time.com/5912452/boy-scouts-sexual-abuse-bankruptcy/

Duggan, P. (2012, October 18). Boy Scout 'perversion files' released. https://www.washington
post.com/local/crime/boy-scout-perversion-files-released/2012/10/18/62c7a6ec-1940-
11e2-B97b-3ae53cdeaf69_story.html

Levine, C. (2020, November 18). Boy Scouts of America Face over 92,000 Accusations of Child
Abuse. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/boy-scouts-of-america-face-over-92000-accusations
-of-child-abuse/

Scouting Newsroom. (2020, February 17). The Boy Scouts of America Files for Chapter 11
Bankruptcy to Equitably Compensate Victims While Ensuring Scouting Continues
Across the Country. https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/press-releases/the-boy-scouts-
of- america-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-to-equitably-compensate-victims-while-
ensuring-scouting-continues-across-the-country/

Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2013). Theorizing crisis communication. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons.