Over at Daily Pundit is an interesting article addressing possible reasons why there are fewer men volunteering for programs like the Big Brothers-Big Sisters program.

Personally, I think the analysis is dead-on.

Perhaps men are merely acting rationally. They've assessed the risk of volunteering to work with children, and want no part of it. If so, that's why BB-BS rates of male participation are well below national averages, which include volunteering that doesn't involve children. Men have been reading the newspapers for the last 30 years, and don't want to end up like Gerald Amirault, who served 18 years in prison following a child abuse witch hunt in Massachusetts, or like Grant Snowden, the Miami police officer who served 12 years behind bars as Janet Reno's stepping stone to national office. They're aware of cases like that of teacher Mark Fronczak, who was arrested, tried and found innocent, but "Besides his career, Fronczak lost his house and life savings during the ordeal. He voluntarily gave up custody of his two teenage sons to his ex-wife after his arrest. … "My life as I know it has been ruined," he said. Fronczak would have been imprisoned for life if convicted."

Further, when an accusation happens, men may worry BB-BS will react the way Duke University's president, Board of Governors and faculty did despite the extreme improbability of the allegations against the three student victims.

Maybe I feel similarly because I've read too much about the Amiraults and the Wenatchee, Wash., debacle where an crazy cop drove his foster daughter around town pointing out random houses where she was "abused" by members of an alleged child-abuse ring.

(For the record, I don't buy the extension of the analysis in this piece that the same "logic" explains the lower rates of marriage.)

I also can identify with the feelings of some of the commenters to the original post:

I can definitely confirm that, at least for me, they've hit the nail on the head. Growing up, I was involved in Scouting for quite a few years. And I'd love to be involved today. But as a single guy who's never been married and in his 30s, the risk is just too great.

[And]

I've considered volunteering for the same to give back in the past couple of years, but there is still a lingering impression that if you've not been married or at least divorced by the time you reach the 30's - there must be something wrong. The risk in today's environment is way too high.

Sad, but so very true.