(KCEN) -- It's an investigation that has many parents second-guessing Boy Scout leaders.
According to the New York Times, the organization may have actively covered up two decades of sexual abuse to hundreds of young boys.
Los Angeles Times reporters poured over 1,600 court documents spanning from 1970 to 1991.
They say they found that scout leaders frequently let accused molesters quietly resign from the organization and kept an internal blacklist, rather than reporting abuse to police.
But because the allegations happened so long ago - the statute of limitations may have run out for some of the victims.
A Dallas lawyer says the Boy Scouts failure to report the abuse may not have been illegal.
According to the Los Angeles Times, scouting officials declined to be interviewed for the article.
In a prepared statement, spokesman Deron Smith told the paper, "We have always cooperated fully with any request from law enforcement and today require our members to report even suspicion of abuse directly to their local authorities."
