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Subscribe to RSSDefense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered all military branches to review policies and procedures in an effort to curb sexual assaults in basic training and to improve how officers and senior enlisted leaders are educated and respond to reported incidents.
The goal of the latest initiatives, Pentagon press secretary George Little said, is more uniform and comprehensive training across all armed forces.
"It is clear that the department must continue to do more to prevent sexual assault, especially in initial military training environments," Little said. "Our newest service members are the most vulnerable and most likely to experience a sexual assault."
Panetta directives, which come less than six months after the Pentagon revised how sexual assaults are reported, includes an assessment of how new recruits are trained, who trains them and oversight of instructors. In addition, the department intends to improve training for prospective commanders on sexual assault prevention and response.
Related: Air Force relieves training commander at Lackland over sex scandal
Last year, 3,192 sexual assault were reported across all branches of the military, though the Defense Department says the true number of incidents was closer to 19,000 because most sexual assaults go unreported.
The announcement comes after a number of reports on sexual assaults within the military.
Lackland Air Force Base trainers are under investigation for sexual assaults against 31 recruits. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski speaks with one victim from another case who said she was drugged and raped by a recruiter in Maine, but she felt powerless to fight back.
At Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, at least a dozen instructors were accused of sexually assaulting at least 31 recruits and 35 instructors have been removed from their posts during the investigation. The Lackland cases were considered in the latest initiatives, Little said.
“The Invisible War,” a documentary film released this summer, unveiled more chilling stories from service members who describe a pattern of assault, intimidation and retaliation, and a failure by the military to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes. The film is highly critical of the military, and in particular the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, which oversees Defense Department policy on sexual assaults.
The review of training will also assess the potential benefits of increasing the number of female instructors.
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"That review will assess initial training in several areas," Little said, "including the selection, training and oversight of instructors and leaders who directly supervise trainees and officer candidates; the ratio of instructors to students; and the ratio of leaders in the chain of command to instructors." It is to be completed by February 2012.
In April, Panetta ordered that sexual complaints be handled by higher ranked officers -- a colonel or officer of equal rank -- to improve accountability. In the past, a service member’s local unit commander would evaluate charges and decide whether to pursue disciplinary action.
Service members who report a sexual assault also were given the option to quickly transfer from their unit or installation to get away from an alleged assailant.
Greg Jacob, policy director for the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), an advocacy group for women in the military, told NBC News that the latest Pentagon moves are a step in the right direction, but fall short of having unbiased lawyers determine whether sexual assault cases should be prosecuted.
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"We're really excited to see the secretary stepping out with leadership, saying 'OK I want to get a snapshot to see what's going in these schools'," Jacob said of the training review. "But as long as commanders are making those decisions you're never going to have completely unbiased dispositions coming out that command -- unless they kick it over to a criminal prosecutor."
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Recruitment is the first step to be considered to prevent any future sexual assault. The recruitment is at least 40% female and the rest of male in one class.
Sexual assult is dispicable, I would also like to see the SECDEF Leon Panetta order all military branches to review policies and procedures in an effort to curb the loss of benifits to the other 99% of military personel.
boy, I missed your point.
The part of the article that stuns me the most
quote" Curb sexual assault?"
Really, just curb it? Why not put measures in place that make it impossible to remain enlisted when sexual assault takes place. Maybe some strong consequences are in order to figure out that rather than curing sexual assault they can avoid it all together.
Oh my, curb it, really, just curb it?
@momo-588486, curb is an accurate word since I think that it is unrealistic to believe that it will be eliminated, which is what they are saying. Even with your suggestion, that is an after-the-fact solution, so it still exists as a problem, so you can only hope to curb it.
On another note, I think they should also move the inquiry out of the involved parties' chain of command so there is less likely to be any favoritism, which runs rampant in the military.
Are we talking male/female, male/male or female/female assault ??
sexual assault is sexual assault. gender is irrelevant.
What the heck does gender matter in aassault?
Rape is rape, no matter the sex being offended or the sex of the offender.
Rape is a criminal act regardless of gender.....
While I agree with the two previous responses, the vast majority of sexual abuse in the military is male on female.
Oh great, another round of sexual assault prevention classes. Because every other month just isn't enough.
....as long as there continues to be such an overwhelming amount of assault, apparently the monthly prevention classes are in need.....
I try to tell people so they will understand and not give up hope,that some of the problem DOES really come from a warfare-some of my family's (Wright brothers/Parker/Gray/Murray)Pentagon chambers were attacked by terrorists and spies-because of crimes against humanity Bush adm.,we have a court order to remove internationally illegal equip. and have rulings of ownership of blueprints,corp.,products...so I had to file an add.case because of violations to our court orders-so I can ask the court for help to do what we need to do and I did ask ICC to connect us back to our security clearances to Pentagon (so many frauds ,we could even get in it to repair it) system to reset it ,and they did .Now we have Hydrosonic ,and we know Navy needs it too-but see how the reset gets rid of the cover ups,before they would threaten to kill people who spoke of it and if you are a victim file a lawsuit here:
10 years late. But oh well...
Hurry up and wait, is the motto for the military.
military life resembles civilian life in many ways. rape occurs in both, is under-reported in both, and is often difficult to prosecute in both.
military life is ideal for sexual predators. move often, hierarchy, unit community that often inhibits reporting, and no way to identify and track those with predatory behavior so they can be dealt with.
I'd suggest this.
train everyone to identify predatory activity.
find a way for people to report predatory activity into a permanent electronic record, using a username and password, but using the name of the predator. this would provide a chronologic record, in the event of an assault, and might provide ID of predators reported by multiple people over time.
everyone who is sexually assaulted can opt either to have a formal investigation, or refuse a formal investigation (there are exceptions). This is to allow those who do not wish to report an assault to get medical assistance (exam, mental health assistance, HIV and other STD prophylaxis, etc.) if reporting is chosen, a forensic exam is done, with evidence collection. if the person assaulted chooses no investigation, a forensic exam can still be done, kept in case a formal investigation is chosen later.
all rape exam kits be processed, especially if DNA materiel from the assaulter is available. DNA matches from multiple kits would point to a predator, and all those assaulted could be gathered in one prosecution against the predator. Those assaulted who opted not to report might be more willing if they knew others had also been assaulted by the same person.
certainly agree that special units specializing in sexual assault investigation and prosecution would be a good thing. Also, prompt investigations and trials, so that the whole unit will not have rotated out by the time the trial is done.
agree that having captains (or lieutenants) as commanders handling assault cases may not be the best idea.
Who ever would have thought that women in the service would lead to sexual assault.
And who would have thought these men would keep raping women after their time in the military had ended? Did you read about the ex-marine convicted of raping a woman in an airport concourse?
At what point do you FINALLY admit these men are the problem, and how many have to be raped before they are treated like it? Rapists and the far more numerous rape-apologist (like yourself) are the problem, not these women!
.....right.....blame the women for the sexual assaults, what the skirt too short for
the guy to keep it under control> really.
an S.V.U. on every base.
I say all females be immediately required to wear chastity belts. That would be more effective than anything the military has done so far. There needs to be more serious consequences for the offenders and woman should eb able to report abuse without being ignored or kicked out and lose all benefits.
I don't think Ms. Pelosi would allow such a rule to pass.