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Subscribe to RSSSenior U.S. defense officials, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, announce new efforts to combat sexual assault in the military.
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday that the Pentagon is preparing new initiatives to try to curb sexual assaults in the military -- a problem he believes could be six times greater than reported.
Panetta said 3,191 sex assault cases were reported in the military last year, but because so few victims come forward, he believes the real number is closer to 19,000 assaults. In 2010, 3,158 cases were reported.
"It is an affront to the basic American values we defend and it is a stain on the good honor of the great majority of our troops and our families," said Panetta during a press conference at the Pentagon.
“These women and these men who are willing to fight and die to protect and serve our country – they deserve better protection. Their families and dependents also sacrifice and serve. And so for this reason, we must spare no effort to protect them against this heinous crime. … One sexual assault is one too many.”
Panetta said new initiatives include extending victim services to military spouses as well as Pentagon civilians and contractors working abroad. Also, more money will go toward training investigators and lawyers to go after and prosecute perpetrators.
Under the new measures, service members who file sexual abuse charges can immediately transfer to a new unit or base to avoid harassment or contact with the accused attacker.
The proposals require congressional approval.
'Deeply regret'
Panetta spoke two days before the premiere of a new documentary about sexual assault in the U.S. military, titled "The Invisible War." The film is being shown at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Saying he wanted to speak directly to the victims of sexual assault in the Defense Department, Panetta said somberly: "I deeply regret that such crimes occur in the U.S. military ... I'm committed to providing you the support and resources you need and to taking whatever steps are necessary to keep what happened to you from happening to others."
"The Invisible War" premieres Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
Announcement of those two changes accompanied the Pentagon's annual report last month showing assault cases rose at the nation's three major military academies in the latest academic year from one year earlier.
The Defense Department's "Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies" for academic year 2010-2011 found there were 65 reports of sexual assaults involving cadets and midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy. That was up from 41 reported assaults in the prior academic year. Officials said they could not conclusively identify the reasons for the increase but that it could be because the department has worked to encourage more victims to report assaults.
Beyond the academy report every December, the Pentagon also releases an annual report each March on sexual assaults throughout the services.
This post includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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Army wife,I spent 6 yrs in the military and never once heard any of this happening.I'm not saying it didn't but I didn't hear of it.If I being male was raped in war I guarentee that someone would die by friendly fire.I'm sure that now the military has alot of people that should be in jail the same as outside.Each day I see more and more crazy things going on.I think this is because people in general see the punishments for crimes are lax.The justice system in this country and in the military is crap .If a family member of mine was raped I'm afraid that the person responsible would not be able to hide...
Be real. It could be 19,000/year or it could be 100/year. There are unreported attacks, but I suspect that there are far more false claims of attacks. Hell, I've overheard young ladies laugh about making false rape reports. Any attacks are too many, but let's be real. I remember when they claimed the war on heroin addiction was "wobn" They postulated that there were 100 unknown addicts for every known addict. Then, they changed the presumption to ten unknown addicts per known addict and announced they had won the war on heroin addiction. Propaganda sells.
What would be the benefit of falsely reporting rape? Intimate details of your sex life are made public and your career would be ruined- as many commanders discourage females from coming forward.
What is wrong with society? People gripe and moan because our soldiers kill enemy combatants, post comments about being insensitive and mention jail time for their actions. What in the heck do you people think we pay our soldiers to do? They are dictated to by politicians - most of whom never wore a uniform, never even held a weapon, have no clue what these guys go through especially being deployed multiple times over a 9 yr span. Some of them are kids that grow up quickly. Instead of bashing them, how about we take them serious and take care of them?
And the marines they photographed urinating on dead corpses - does anyone know the circumstances behind it - in my opinion - they had their reasons for doing what they did - and they have my support. Those that sit in judgement - join the military - go to these crap hole countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the list goes on - spend a year in a tent with nothing but blowing dirt, where every step you take could be your last, surrounded by people that hate you and will try to kill you every chance they get - see if it doesn't start to take it's toll after spanning 9 years.
Those brave men and women fighting for our Country's freedoms need American's support. Stop taking our freedoms (that are taken away slowly but surely by politicians) for granted - they are ours because of the blood, sweat, and tears of our United States Military! Thank you!!!!!!!
"You want me on that wall!" "You need me on that wall!" To borrow a couple of lines that apply!!
Yeah, TXHorseman... and we all know what that got him! And we all know what peeing on the corpses will get these marines as well. They will have no honor left. One guy told me a bunch of troops in Ramadi tied a dead body to the front of their humvee and paraded it around Ramadi the whole day. And how does that make our soldiers any different from those who dragged our dead soldiers around by their necks??? This sort of thing is the best way I know of to lose the support of our civilized nation.
And so the bigwigs in the Pentagon want to have women in combat too. Guess how much more sexual assualts will happen if we are crazy enough to do that. Jeez, war is terrible. It brings out the worst and the best of individuals. I saw it in Vietnam. There were guys collecting ears from dead VC. They made necklaces with the ears and wore them around their necks........ But even in the so-called good war (WWII) there were atrocities. My uncle who was on Guadacanal and Okinawa once confessed to my father that he and several other marines killed a bunch of Japanese prisoners because they were too tired to watch them. You cannot train soldiers to kill and then expect them to hold back. War is an all out mind blowing, terrifying, impossible-to-explain situation. There's no possible way to control the adrenaline of young soldier with dictums from the Pentagon. And you sure as hell can't control the Testosterone Don't blame the problem on the soldiers. Blame it on the politicans who keep wars going because they get lots of money from the war materials lobbiests. Eisenhower was right!!!!!!
We don't pay them to rape women- stop making excuses for them.
I get incredibly tired of taking reported cases of anything and then applying some unknown multiplying factor and coming up with the "real" number of cases. It's a total bull@!$%# number.
Rapes and sexual assaults are common in wars ... deliberately putting women into battle conditions is absurd.
There will be enough rapes and crimes perpetrated on the civilians living in the areas of the conflict without adding more women into the equation.
Units that have strong leadership and discipline probably have neither rapes nor crimes perpetrated on the civilians or on their fellow soldiers. And this is not an issue of men raping women - the Department of Veteran Affairs did a survey in 2004 and more than 33,000 men said they had experienced military sexual trauma. I'm sure it has not gone down.
What do you Expect UNEDUCATED!!! You need a high sghool Eneducation or a GED.
To be in the military, and it in the Academy.
I'm not quite sure what you are trying to say, but obtaining a degree does not guarantee character. The vast majority of our service men and women are professionals who uphold the highest standards of behavior.And you know they want to get the low lifes out of the service as much as anyone. If a person has low sexual mores there's a good chance they are someone you don't want watching your back either.
Not surprised, but it's disgusting that a lot of them get away with these assaults. Military tends to cover up so much for the sake of their "image". Pathetic!!!!!!!!!!
The Pentagon doesnt understand the full extent of sexual assault in the military because, despite what they say in public, they really do not want to know. I am retired army and a survior of military sexual assault. He was acquitted and I was denied every request to transfer to another duty station. Since he was acquitted my company commander said I had nothing to be afraid of. Lets get rid of the ignorance so the victims can be protected and the rapists can go to prison.
Sadly I have heard this tale all too often.Rape is a serious crime and needs to be treated accordingly.
Google "MST" if you have sincere interest in the wellbeing of the men and women were sexually traumatized during their military service to this nation. Incredibly appalling. Otherwise, continue to spout your ignorant BS or grind your own political axe, like you always do in your posts here, benefitting nobody. Also, there are way more male than female victims of MST.
Is that all the no#s must be declining
This information was withheld until after the Administration pushed for gays in the barracks.
I would like a comparison of "military" versus "civilian" sexual assualt. I do know that there is a great increase in the civilian sector. Yet having spent 23 years in the Army I do believe that any time the "military" does something good the press never prints it. Yet when it reflects negatively on the "military" then it becomes front page news. Makes a person wonder greatly about the bias in the news media.
They reported the Iranians that we saved from pirates.
Not sure what the comparison is, interesting question though.
Ken,
Start here for an idea about sexual assault in the civilian populations
http://www.rainn.org/statistics
http://www.ncdsv.org/images/SexualAssaultStatistics.pdf
The dysfunctional USA can't get past the libido. Now we have 19,000x2=32,000= 2 divisions tied up with this nonsense. Now the gays will add to the stupidity. The stockades will be filled. The lawyers love all this. Our army like everything else in our country is going to the dogs.
How many of them are female initiated on men?
I wonder if that number is going to rise with the lift of don't ask don't touch.
In 2010 there were 3,158 reported sexual assaults in the military with a real number at approximately 19,000 because of the fear and stigma of reporting forcable rape. In 2010 in the united states there were 84,767 reported rapes with an approximate number of 112,000 because of the same stigma and fear. So for those of you who like to beat up on the military rape has been a consistant problem for the United States as a country since the crime has been reported. I'm 54 years old and can remember as far back as the early 1970's women would rarely report it because by time defense attorneys got done with them it's a wonder they didn't end up in prison being victimized twice. I'm wondering are they putting something in the drinking water or spraying in the air where as a society we are devovling instead of evolving. I'm retired Army (1995) and what has been in the news lately what is going on is a lack of standards and training. You spend your time hating your enemy then when they are not around that same hatred is directed at a one of your own soldiers by pelting him with rocks which I have never seen remedial trianing in a FM telling anybody to torment their own troops and call it corrective training and then try and justify it. The military has problems but you have more monsters in the civilian side of the house than the military. Military members come from the civilian world and not the military world so if they have monsterous traits they came in the military with those traits already embedded.
This is going to be hard to read, you women want equal rights, equal time in the military an equal place. The military is a place where you are trained to protect the Country by learning how to KILL. You are not there for a good time you are not there for fun and games, the military is a violent place when is this Country going to learn this. God help us because if we do not have a military that is willing to KILL we will not win a war and the military is about war and KILLING. Rape is a violent act, you put men and women in the same close quarters and this is what will happen, you were warned before you screamed and protested for this. Yes these are young people with a lot of pent up violent installed emotions. Guess what?
So you are saying the "women asked for this?" You need to crawl back in your hole Bubba!
Apparently, according to Bubba, rape is only a problem if it's against a woman who abides by "traditional" gender stereotypes. Otherwise, have at 'em, boys???
Your ignorance is appalling. Rape isn't about sex, and it isn't because men and women being in close quarters together.
Do some research, than I suggest you come back on the vine and apologize to every law abiding service member, and every sexual assault victim in, or out, of the military.
You and your thought process are part of the problem.
http://www.ncdsv.org/images/SexualAssaultStatistics.pdf
http://www.rainn.org/statistics
No I'm not saying women ask to be raped, they asked to serve their Country, but it doesn't take a billion dollar study to figure out that under the conditions that are in the military this was inevitable. It could not be stopped, and I just bet you women are not the only ones being raped I bet they are some of the rapers you fools. Sarah read please rape is an act of violence!
Rape is an act of violence, and of power, and control. It's not an act of too much testosterone. The problem is with the rapists, not with the women fighting, nor should the women not be allowed to serve, because of the rapists.
Get your priorities straight.
Based on the FBI statistics the occurrence of rape/sexual assault in the military is about half that of the general populace. Since the military is made from the general populace, it doesn't surprise me.
The U.S. military could get together with the Catholic church and really have a ball!
Bubba, are you trying to say that women who get raped in the military want a good time? or fun and games? Or is that their attackers? Women soldiers are professionals, they don't ask for this crp, believe me. If I had to do a psych profile of the attitudes of a military rapist, it would be just what you said.
hi, Iam a 2 tour nam vet 66,67 so what did you liberitan @!$%#s think what was going to happen when you let the girls into fighting units.? thats whats wrong with with our country, the morons are in control///
What do you expect when you put 20 year old, boys and girls together. I have several granddaughters and they are just as boy crazy as boys are girl crazy. Been going on forever, don't expect thing to change. You are not going to change what nature put there. Nothing new, in 1942 Air Force Cadets, locked down tight in Mass. collage, near fancy girls collage, girls would slip into the building and spend night with Cadets. Girls knew their way around the buildings better than the Cadets did. Girls are sharper than boys in many ways. Don't fight mother nature.
So, rape occurs because of "boys" being "girl crazy"? Talk about not understanding the issue AT ALL. Your comparing rape to slipping out of ones room for a little nookie and that it's just "mother nature" is one of the most disturbing things I've read in a long time.
Or did you not notice that this article is in regards to sexual ASSAULT?
I would love to respond to some of the opinoins expressed on here but most people can pick out the real idiots so no need in me pointing them out. I would like to know how Panetta came up with the 19000 number. There is a very small difference in reported cases in 2010 and 2011. Seems consistent, and you always got figure in that there is some non reported incidents but 19000 unreported incidents seems like a huge jump to me.
part of the reason things like this happen so often is because it goes unreported. the abusers are getting away with it so they dont care. get over the pride or embarrasment, if you got hurt then who knows how many have also or will get hurt. you could be saving or speaking for others, you shouldnt be ashamed. bad things happen to everyone, some worse than others but at least, maybe you could save someone else or get justice!
With all the attention already applied to this very topic it is remarkable how little is actually accomplished. I know and have known for several years now there is a problem at one base. My daughter in Law was a victim of date rape while her husband was deployed. They are both active duty and the result of her reporting the event was her being treated as the problem instead of the actor being investigated. To get away from the actor SHE had to move instead of the unit moving the divorced actor back into the barracks. It was not the first time he was accused of doing this yet nothing was done to him, no action was taken. She moved to a new location and they dropped everything. FT. Hood has a problem in it's investigation Division, always has had one. I remember reporting finding my car broken into one morning and I could visibly see finger prints and the investigator looked at me like I was from Mars when I pointed them out to him. The end result of that was I lost a $200 Amp and $300 stereo because he had no idea how to collect evidence or believed he had better things to do than collect it. Now if they are this lax and unprofessional on a Burglary of Vehicle imagine how they are going to be when investigating something as important as Date Rape or Sexual Assault. The local police are no better when it comes to cases involving Military so you can't even turn over those investigations to them to get the job done.
why was your daughter in law dating when she was married? if she is active duty then isn't she in violation of the ucmj? i am not judging her but trying to understand what you have written. either way the crime committed is reprehensible and the rapist should be prosecuted. she should have sought outside resolution if the military was doing nothing for her. many women's right advocacy groups would have lent her a hand.