COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: Women
Sexual Assault Reports Increase
Associated Press
March 17, 2006
WASHINGTON
- Reports of sexual assaults in the military increased by nearly 40
percent last year, the Pentagon announced Thursday, saying the increase
was at least partly due to a new program that encourages victims to
come forward.
According to a report released Thursday, there were 2,374 allegations
of sexual assaults reported during 2005, compared to 1,700 in 2004. Of
last year's reports, 435 were initially filed under a new program that
allows victims to report the incident and receive health care or
counseling services but does not notify law enforcement or commanders.
The restricted, confidential reporting program also allows the victims
to consider pursuing an investigation later, and that was done in 108
of the 435 cases during 2005. Until that new policy went into effect
last June, an investigation was automatically triggered by a sexual
assault report.
"This is the most underreported crime in our society," said Roger
Kaplan, a Pentagon spokesman. "The key, at least in the military, is to
make it less. We want victims to have treatment. And the more who come
forward, the better chance we have of taking action and getting the
offenders off the street."
Kaplan said it is impossible to tell whether the increase in reports
during 2005 signals any actual increase in sexual assaults. But he said
he believes it shows that the military's extensive program in recent
years to better train troops and to encourage reporting has been
successful.
According to the Defense Department, the military services have set up
sexual assault program offices at all major installations and trained
more than 1,000 response coordinators and victim advocates. The Army,
for example, also has a sexual assault coordinator deployed with each
brigade and a victim's advocate with every battalion, said Kaplan.
Of the cases that were fully investigated in 2005, nearly 1,400 - or 68
percent - were completed by the end of the year. No action was taken
against more than 800 alleged offenders because the incident was
unfounded, there was a lack of evidence or the person was not
identified.
Among the remaining cases that were finalized, 79 people received
courts-martial, 91 were given nonjudicial punishments and 104 were
discharged or otherwise reprimanded.
The military has come under fire for repeated problems with sexual
abuse at the service academies, in units stationed abroad in Iraq,
Kuwait, Afghanistan or Bahrain, and at military installations. Detainee
abuse allegations have also included sexual assaults.
The Air Force Academy in Colorado is still struggling to recover from
complaints that dozens of female cadets were assaulted and then
punished when they reported it. And a recent survey by the Veterans
Affairs Department showed that six in 10 women who served in the
National Guard and Reserves say they were sexually harassed or
assaulted.
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