In January, the Michigan State Police notified Dana Nessel's office that 1,700 of those sex-abuse claims were in the state. Her office said it now thinks that as many as 3,000 victims were abused in the state.

"I certainly didn't understand the scale of it as it pertained to Michigan," Ms. Nessel said. "I think it's a moral imperative that when we have this kind of information that we not sweep it under the rug."

This month, Ms. Nessel announced the first statewide criminal investigation into the Boy Scouts. It comes as the Boy Scouts near a civil settlement with lawyers representing the bulk of abuse victims as the youth group aims to end the largest bankruptcy case ever filed over childhood abuse, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Ms. Nessel's investigation is potentially damaging for the future of the Boy Scouts, which had hoped that filing for bankruptcy would ease a civil settlement with survivors and move the organization past its prior failures to protect children from predators. Instead, the chapter 11 case brought into the open roughly 84,000 claims, supplying a wealth of documentation that law enforcement never had before.

In an interview, Ms. Nessel said she plans to investigate systemic failures at the Boy Scouts, and that she will issue a report at the end of her investigation.

"Whether universities or religious institutions . . . there's so much in the way of covering up and aiding and abetting by the organization that allows this to happen," she said. "It goes on with the knowledge of people who are high up in the organization who either look the other way or aid and abet in the perpetration of these crimes."

The Boy Scouts of America said it would fully cooperate with the investigation and that it shares the commitment of the attorney general to provide support for abuse survivors. "The BSA strongly supports efforts to ensure that anyone who commits sexual abuse is held accountable," it said.

Other states, which also have thousands of abuse claims involving the Boy Scouts, could follow Michigan's lead in investigating the institution, some legal analysts say. A report that identifies perpetrators could later be used by law enforcement to investigate future allegations, according to several lawyers who represent sexual-assault victims.

In the Boy Scouts bankruptcy, more than 1,100 men have written to the judge overseeing the bankruptcy, describing abuse by scout leaders and others on camping trips and at other venues.

Ms. Nessel's office hopes a state law that stops the clock on statutes of limitations when perpetrators leave the state will open the door to bringing charges. If someone came to Michigan for a Boy Scouts event, committed abuse, and left, they could be vulnerable to criminal prosecution, even if it were years ago.

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