Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America – Netflix Review

SCOUTS HONOR: THE SECRET FILES OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA on Netflix is a new true crime documentary. A tough watch, but also very important, so do watch it. Read our Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America documentary review here!

SCOUTS HONOR: THE SECRET FILES OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA is a new Netflix documentary in the true crime subgenre. And there are many crimes to cover in this 94-minute documentary.

Fortunately, the focus is very much on the victims of these crimes – with many survivors speaking out about their experiences.

Continue reading our Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America review below. On Netflix from September 6, 2023.

Interviews with key figures

What works really well with Scouts Honor is having all the right ingredients. For any true crime documentary, the right ingredients are facts and interviews with key figures.

In this Netflix documentary, we get exclusive interviews with whistleblowers, abuse survivors, and former employees of Boy Scouts of America.

It’s downright brutal to be faced with so many facts that clearly show how horrific child sexual abuse was allowed to continue. Yes, allowed. When you do nothing to stop the abuser, then you are very much allowing them to continue.

Fortunately, there were people both within the Boy Scouts of America and victims that did speak up. Meanwhile, the BSA [Boy Scouts of America] spent decades being focused on discriminating against homosexual men. Equating pedophiles with homosexuals and championing homophobia rather than protecting the children in their care.

The world needs to do better

While this Netflix documentary deals specifically with the Boy Scouts of America, it is apparent that the tactics used are familiar. Moving child abusers to a new district when their crimes are discovered is something that sounds eerily familiar. The Catholic Church has been very good at using the exact same method.

All in the name of protecting the Church, just like it happened with the Boy Scouts of America to protect that institution.

The fact that the Church and this Institution used the same methods becomes even more suspicious when the Scouts Honor documentary shows the connection between the two. While the most important thing should be to protect the children in their care, what they really worry about is protecting their own name.

We have to the better, and with a documentary like this, it’s clear that when we do better, change happens.

Watch the Scouts Honor documentary on Netflix now!

Brian Knappenberger is the director of Scouts Honor which is one of the better and stronger Netflix documentaries. Always with a strong focus on facts as well as having multiple survivors speak as well as a representative of the Boy Scouts of America. Let me tell you, that man does not come away looking good. On the other hand, the whistleblower does. And I really like the way he is approaching the child abuse cases.

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Be warned, when you realize that the full title of “The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America” refers to actual files about child abuse cases, you will get very angry. The BSA [Boy Scouts of America] have had files on multiple child abusers but just didn’t act on them. The reasoning was that there was no problem with child abuse in the BSA, so nobody needed to actually read the files.

If someone had bothered to actually do their job of protecting kids, rather than an institution, so much pain inflicted on boys could’ve been avoided. This is not an easy true crime documentary to watch, but it is an important one. Not least to make sure that this abuse doesn’t continue – at least one person interviewed is certain that it is still happening. And I believe he’s right, which is a sickening thought.

Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America is on Netflix from September 6, 2023.