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The Boy Scouts of America released over 15,000 pages of records yesterday detailing 20 years of sexual abuse complaints directed at 1,247 scout leaders. The organization fought the courts in an attempt to keep the records, which span 1965 to 1985, confidential. Names and addresses of the thousands of victims were redacted from the documents.

The BSA has said it has been restructuring its system of reporting abuse and has promised to review older, still-confidential files and report any instances of wrongdoing to the authorities, The New York Times reported.

Its rationale for fighting publication of the records was that their release might inhibit others from reporting future abuse, fearing breach of confidentiality.

It is often unclear because of the "chaotic" nature of the records, as reported by The Times, "whether an accused leader was exonerated, convicted or neither." Each file, which is identified by the alleged abuser's name, state, city, and date of the accusations contains a "gamut of newspaper articles and correspondence between the alleged abusers and the Scoutmasters related to the particular case," Time reported.

Dubbed, "the perversion files" or files of "ineligible volunteers," the records are thought to reach as far back as the 1920s, when the organization attempted to screen out pedophiles. Collectively, the records are thought to address claims by some 100,000 victims, as reported by Time.

One saving grace, The Times pointed out is that, "the files do not suggest that souting was -- or is now -- riddled with sexual stalkers."

The files were ordered to be made public by the Oregon Supreme Court, following a 2010 verdict in favor of Kerry Lewis, an Oregon man who brought a sexual abuse charge against a scout master in the 1980s. The plaintiff won an $18.5 million judgment.

In that decision the court said the Boy Scouts of America's file of "ineligible volunteers," showed the organization knew it had a sex abuse problem and was actively covering it up.

The files have been made available by the law firm O'Donnell, Clark & Crew, which argued the 2010 case. They can be accessed on the firm's website.

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