UNITED STATES
CBS News
(AP) NEW YORK — The Boy Scouts have labored for decades to curtail sexual abuse of scouts by adult volunteers. But when their name was evoked in a lawsuit linked to the Penn State abuse scandal, the reference was not to problems — it was acknowledgment that the Scouts’ current prevention policies are considered state of the art.
While the local youth charity in the Penn State case has been accused of lax policies, experts in abuse prevention say most of the national organizations serving young people — such as the Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the YMCA, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America — have performed commendably in drafting and enforcing tough anti-abuse policies even as they’re sometimes faced with wily and manipulative molesters.
“I’d give them all an A-plus,” said Portland State University psychologist Keith Kaufman, who has studied and treated child sex abuse victims.
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