The book is a little outdated now that over 1,200 BSA “Perversion Files” have been made public and so much more has come to light. But it explains the history of child molesters targeting Scouts and how the Boy Scouts, from the beginning, tried to cover up the problem.
With example after example, Patrick Boyle shows that BSA worried more about its own reputation and defamation lawsuits from pedophiles than the welfare of the children being raped and sexually exploited by adult volunteers.
Scout’s Honor will grab you from the opening page. It reads like fiction, but is not. Doyle meticulously researched court filings, pored through public records, and interviewed convicted pedophiles for his eye-opening expose of one of America’s most trusted institutions.
While it may be disappointing to read negative information about the Boy Scouts, awareness and acknowledgement of a problem must come before change is possible.
Scout’s Honor Book Description
Carlton Bittenbender was a parent’s dream – and nightmare.
The former Navy pilot, beloved teacher and decorated Scout leader walked into a meeting of a moribund Boy Scout troop one night, and within weeks turned it into an adventure club that boys clamored to join. The boys and their parents didn’t know about why Carl had left the Navy, his last school and his last troop. They didn’t know about the conviction or the electric shock treatments. Carl figured he was cured.
He was not.
Scout’s Honor examines the phenomenon of institutional sex abuse through one organization: the Boy Scouts of America. The book’s mission: Explore how good people inadvertently enable child molesters at the expense of children.
To find the answers, a veteran journalist reaches back to the very beginning of Scouting more than 100 years ago; combs through nearly 2,000 of the BSA’s “Confidential Files” on molesters, and thousands of documents from court files and historical archives; and talks with molesters, victims, parents, Scout officials, investigators and child abuse experts.
The result: a tale that reveals the history of abuse in Scouting and the inadequate response of adults, while tracing the life of one of Scouting’s most notorious offenders.
This is the second, revised edition of Scout’s Honor, which broke the story of sex abuse in the Boy Scouts in the 1990s, setting off a chain of revelations that continue to this day.
Scout’s Honor Editorial Review
Although the subject matter of Scouts Honor will put some readers off, it deserves to be read. By focusing on the molesters-rather than their victims-the book offers an eye-opening look at exactly how child molesters operate and how society has let them get away with it. According to Boyle, who carefully researched the history of the Boy Scouts and conducted interviews with eight former scout leaders who molested boys, the scouting institution has served as a magnet for pedophiles since it inception. Although the Boy Scouts has recently taken effective steps to combat this problem, Boyle asserts that the best protection remains “a family life that is supportive and emotionally sound so that a child does not seek attention and affection elsewhere.” Recommended for public libraries.