A report on the Penn State case from former FBI Director Louis Freeh found emails and other documents that showed university officials had multiple opportunities to stop Sandusky, but they instead concealed what they knew from the university and the public.

It took a three-year state grand jury investigation to bring Sandusky’s activities, and the university’s cover-up, to light.

Nearly 11,000 people accused U.S. Catholic priests of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002, and the church has faced legal settlements of more than $2 billion. Some high-ranking church leaders were found to have reassigned abusive priests to parishes where they molested more children. And the church’s legal and financial troubles are far from over, and recently, the scandal has spread to congregations in Europe.

Like these scandals and others, the Boy Scout files could produce criminal trials and years of litigation, as well as potentially millions of dollars in damages.

Jennifer Freyd, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon and an expert on institutional betrayal, said: “The dynamics that can cause institutions to turn a blind eye are powerful dynamics that will show up over and over…Everybody can make a mistake. In the end, it’s the cover-up that will do you in.”

SEARCH FOR NAMES IN THE FILES

The names were listed in files concerning allegations of child sexual abuse in the Boy Scout system. In a number of the cases, the allegations were later substantiated by court proceedings. However, in a great many cases no such substantiation ever occurred.

More information on individual cases is available at the website of the Oregon law firm that pushed for their release.

Steve Rothaus of The Miami Herald contributed to this article.