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The Association of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts was founded in 1976.
© Fredrik von Erichsen/dpa
More than 100 cases, dozens of suspected perpetrators: The Boy Scouts in Germany are working on sexual abuse within their own ranks.
But a new study probably only shows the tip of the iceberg.
Munich - “I always thought I was an isolated individual,” said Sophie Ruhlig.
“Don’t talk about it, no one will believe you anyway,” he said.
“You’re taking part too.” Ruhlig said she was sexually abused by her then scout leader for two years.
And today she knows: she is not an isolated case.
A new study that examined cases of abuse among the Boy Scouts in Germany lists more than 100 victims and dozens of accused.
“Borderless Places” is the title of the study that the Institute for Practical Research and Project Consulting (IPP) presented on Thursday in Munich.
At least 50 accused
It assumes that there are at least 50 accused and 123 affected people in the Association of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts (BdP).
According to the study, there are also 24 accused and 26 affected people who come from the “boy scout context” but do not belong to the association.
According to the federal government, this is the first such investigation in Germany that relates to a youth association.
The federal government's abuse commissioner, Kerstin Claus, spoke of an important signal that should serve as a model for other youth associations to come to terms with the situation within their own ranks.
“For the first time, this investigation study also shows how power imbalances, rankings and misunderstood loyalties in youth organizations were exploited, especially by very young perpetrators - and how this loyalty still makes it difficult to deal with it in the Boy Scouts today,” she said.
“The special familiarity on excursions, trips or in tent camps, coupled with a large power imbalance and specific group rituals and group pressures, have created an often inscrutable climate of closeness, fear and aggression.”
Girls and boys are equally affected
According to the scientists, just as many girls as boys in the Boy Scouts were affected.
However, the perpetrators are almost exclusively male.
According to the study, there are “two prototypes”: the older, adult scout and the teenager or young adult “who uses his position as a leadership figure to sexually exploit younger people.”
The “riskiest places,” according to the study, were Boy Scout camps, trips and tribal meetings.
There were attacks “in the context of games and rituals,” but also in private situations;
when children and young people were driven home, for example.
“Very specific” situation in the Boy Scouts
The situation in the Boy Scouts is “very specific,” said Peter Caspari from the IPP, and difficult to compare with that in the Catholic Church, for example.
Here “very young people are caught in situations of responsibility”.
This is a “big difference to other crime contexts such as the Catholic Church, where there were clear hierarchies of adults who did not live up to their responsibilities”.
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Another special feature of the Boy Scouts: Because there are often very young people in leadership positions, it is not easy to distinguish between completely consensual relationships among young people and those in which someone abuses their power.
The IPP Munich, which, among other things, investigated sexual violence in the Odenwald School and in the Upper Bavarian Catholic monastery Ettal, carried out the study together with “Dissens – Institute for Education and Research” in Berlin.
The focus of the study is on the years between 1976 and 2006. The researchers assume that there is a large number of unreported cases - among other things because no information at all was provided from some federal states.
“We are shocked”
Caspari said there were indications that people knew a lot but didn't want to say anything. His IPP colleague Helga Dill from the IPP reported "anonymous letters in which severe forms of sexualized violence were described."
As possible reasons why victims remain silent to this day, she cited fear of the perpetrator, but also “enduring loyalties to their own scout group” and clinging to an ideal image.
You don't want to be a polluter.
There is also a great fear of no longer belonging.
The Association of Boy Scouts was founded in 1976, says it is interdenominational and non-partisan and has around 30,000 members.
The aim of his educational work should be to convey to children and young people “a sense of community and responsibility, cosmopolitanism and environmental awareness”.
“We are shocked at how many places the BdP has failed to protect its members from sexualized violence and (power) abuse in the past,” said BdP federal chairwoman Annika Schulz.
“People remained silent and looked the other way.” Caspari becomes clearer: dealing with those affected was “characterized by ignorance.”
“Out of sight, out of mind.” dpa