Crimes against children at youth organizations: the statistics (2000–2026)

Before any single organization, the baseline matters. Child sexual abuse is far more common than most people assume, and the statistics youth organizations operate within are sobering.

• At least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 20 boys experience child sexual abuse — the CDC's current figure, which it notes is likely an underestimate because so much abuse is never disclosed.¹
• Rigorous prevalence studies put contact child sexual abuse in the range of 7.5%–11.7% of children; researchers caution against any single "definitive" number.³
• The total lifetime economic burden of child sexual abuse in the U.S. was estimated at at least $9.3 billion, with a lifetime cost of about $282,734 per female nonfatal victim.^1,2

These numbers describe the population of children that scouting troops, sports clubs, mentoring programs, and youth ministries serve every day. They are the context for everything that follows.

The Boy Scouts of America case is the largest child-abuse reckoning in U.S. history, and it unfolded almost entirely between 2019 and 2026.

• After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 18, 2020, the BSA received roughly 82,000 abuse claims (some tallies of total submissions run higher) — the most of any single organization.^15,16
• The confirmed reorganization plan created a $2.46 billion Scouting Settlement Trust for survivors, funded by the BSA, local councils, chartered organizations, and insurers.¹⁵
• The BSA's own expert, Dr. Janet Warren of the University of Virginia, identified 7,819 alleged perpetrators and 12,254 victims in the organization's internal "ineligible volunteer" files spanning 1944–2016.¹⁷
• An earlier court order in October 2012 had already released roughly 1,247 files (20,000+ pages) covering 1965–1985 — the documents that became known publicly as the "perversion files."¹⁵

The plan was confirmed on September 8, 2022, payments to survivors began in April 2023, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a final challenge in January 2026.¹⁵

While dioceses and parishes are religious institutions rather than secular youth charities, the U.S. Catholic Church produced the most thoroughly documented body of abuse data in the country — and much of the abuse involved minors in church youth programs.

• The landmark John Jay Report documented 10,667 victims and 4,392 accused priests between 1950 and 2002 — about 4% of all priests active in that period.¹⁸
• Over roughly the last two decades, U.S. dioceses and religious communities have paid more than $5 billion in abuse-related costs, with some estimates approaching $6 billion.¹⁹

The abuse by Larry Nassar — a doctor for USA Gymnastics, a nonprofit national governing body, and Michigan State University — became the defining youth-sports abuse case of the era.

• More than 150 women and girls delivered victim-impact statements at his 2018 sentencing; the total number of accusers ultimately exceeded 500.^20,21
• Settlements included $380 million from USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (2021), $500 million from Michigan State to 332 victims (2018), and $138.7 million from the federal government over the FBI's failure to act (2024).^20,21

The Jerry Sandusky case is the clearest illustration of how a children's charity itself can become the access point for an abuser. Sandusky founded The Second Mile, a nonprofit for at-risk youth, in 1977 — and used it to reach his victims.

• Sandusky was convicted on 45 of 48 counts in June 2012, involving 10 boys.²²
• Penn State paid approximately $118 million to 36 claimants between 2013 and 2018.^22,23

The Second Mile is a cautionary tale that no statistic fully captures: the nonprofit's mission of serving vulnerable children was the very thing the abuser exploited.

Congress created the U.S. Center for SafeSport in 2018 to handle abuse reports across the Olympic and youth-sports movement. Its caseload is one of the few year-over-year measures we have — and it has grown sharply.

• SafeSport received 281 reports in 2017 and roughly 8,100 in 2024, with cumulative reports surpassing 32,000 by the end of 2024.^24,25
• The 2022 Yates Report on U.S. Soccer and the NWSL reviewed 89,000+ documents, led to 4 coaches being permanently banned, and resulted in $2.95 million in club fines.²⁶

Beyond the headline cases, journalists have begun the harder work of counting abuse across mainstream youth charities.

• A 2020 investigation identified 351 victims across 35 states connected to Boys & Girls Clubs of America — the first nationwide journalistic accounting, with cases dating back to the 1960s.²⁷

A note on rigor: organizations such as the YMCA and Big Brothers Big Sisters do not have credible aggregate abuse counts in the public record, so we do not assert one. Absence of a tally is not evidence of absence of risk — it reflects how unevenly this data is collected.

Headline cases can distort the picture. Peer-reviewed research gives a more grounded — and in one respect, hopeful — view.

• A nationally representative 2024 study found that 3.75% of U.S. adults experienced child sexual abuse within a youth-serving organization.²⁸
• The same study found the share of survivors abused in the "big six" youth organizations fell from 44.5% in an older cohort to 29.1% in a younger one — evidence that prevention efforts are working.²⁸
• More broadly, substantiated child sexual abuse in the U.S. declined by about 64% between 1992 and 2020.²⁸
• Abuse-prevention firm Praesidium reports that, in its root-cause analysis of cases, negligent hiring or screening was alleged in 65% of adult-to-youth abuse cases.²⁹

The single most important fact for any youth organization: abuse is overwhelmingly committed by people children already know and trust.

• About 90% of child sexual abuse is committed by someone the child knows; in cases reported to police, 58.7% of offenders were acquaintances, 34.2% family members, and only 7% strangers.^1,5

"Acquaintance" is precisely the category coaches, troop leaders, clergy, mentors, and volunteers occupy. The trust that makes youth programs valuable is the same trust an abuser seeks to exploit.

Nearly every statistic above is an undercount, because most abuse is never reported — or is reported only decades later.

• One study found just 12% of child sexual abuse was disclosed to authorities, and only 26% was disclosed to any adult.⁴
• An estimated 86% of child sexual abuse goes unreported before adulthood.⁶
• More than 70% of survivors do not disclose within five years, roughly 1 in 5 never disclose at all, and the average delay is around 20 years.⁶
• Of cases that are reported, fewer than 1 in 5 are prosecuted.⁴

This is why the Boy Scouts and Catholic Church numbers surfaced only when survivors — by then adults — came forward en masse, often 30 to 50 years after the abuse.

This is the section every nonprofit leader needs, and it requires honesty. Background screening is necessary — but on its own, it is not sufficient.

• The CDC frames screening as just one of six prevention components — alongside clear interaction guidelines, monitoring, safe physical environments, a response plan, and ongoing training.⁸
• Eliminating one-adult-one-child isolation is among the most effective steps; the CDC recommends two or more adults be present with children whenever possible.⁸
• Screening still matters because abusers do reoffend: released sex offenders were re-arrested for a new sex crime at roughly three times the rate of other released prisoners over nine years (7.7% vs 2.3%).¹⁰
• Reconviction-based sexual recidivism rises with time — from about 13–14% at five to six years to roughly 24% at fifteen years, and higher for those who abused boys.¹¹

The honest conclusion: a check confirms whether someone has been caught before — which is valuable, but catches only the minority with a record. That is why modern child protection pairs screening with identity verification (confirming a person is who they claim to be, since ~90% of abuse comes from known, trusted adults), supervision, and culture.

The last 26 years also produced the most significant child-protection lawmaking in U.S. history, much of it driven by the cases above.

• As of 2026, 30 states and 3 territories have opened civil "revival" or "lookback" windows letting survivors sue over old abuse; 44 states, D.C., and the federal government have eliminated the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.⁷
• The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 created national sex-offender registry (SORNA) standards.¹³
• The Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and SafeSport Authorization Act of 2018 created the U.S. Center for SafeSport and imposed a 24-hour mandatory-reporting duty on amateur sports organizations.¹²
• About 17 states plus Puerto Rico now require any adult to report suspected child abuse, not only designated professionals.¹⁴