Pentagon: Sexual Assault Numbers at All-time High

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SEX, LIES, AND CRIME – PENTAGON SAYS SEXUAL ASSAULT NUMBERS ARE AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH
By Joe Calandra Jr.
Published: May 14, 2013 | 0 Comments

Earlier this month, the Pentagon immediately replaced the commander of the sexual response and prevention office following his arrest for sexual battery. Since then, many citizens are talking about military sexual violence.

The bottom line of the recently released 2012 DOD Sexual Assault and Prevention Report (SAPR 2012) is that formally reported numbers of sexual assaults in which DOD personnel are either victims or reported abusers are at an all-time high.

“The actual number of sexual crimes reported in the fiscal year 2012 was 3,374, a 6% increase over the previous year,” according to The National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Also at a record high is the DOD’s number of non-reported sexual crimes – situations in which employees say that they have experienced unwanted sexual contact from coworkers.

According to SAPR 2012, “26,000 troops experienced an episode of ‘unwanted sexual contact,’ a huge jump from the 19,300…in…2010.”

Here are a few excerpts from this Sunday’s Washington Post on the pandemic of sexual misconduct being perpetrated by military members who have betrayed their country’s sacred trust.

“In Texas, an Air Force recruiter will face a military court next month on charges of rape, forcible sodomy and other crimes involving 18 young women he tried to enlist over a three-year period.”

“In Oregon, an Army staff sergeant pleaded guilty in March to having sex with a 17-year-old girl in a recruiting office.”

“In Arizona, an Army staff sergeant was charged in November with having a sexual relationship with a minor after he allegedly took a 16-year-old student to a park on multiple occasions and exchanged nude photos with her.”

“In Oklahoma, an Air Force staff sergeant was convicted of dereliction of duty by a military court in November after he had sex with a recruit, in a relationship that began with sexually explicit text messages.”

“In Maryland…An army staff sergeant, Adam Arndt, killed himself after he fatally shot Michelle Miller, a 17-year-old Germantown girl whom he had been recruiting for the Army Reserve.”

A closer look at the MD case reveals that SSgt. Arndt was married to a twenty-one year old soldier who had been recruited from the same office where Arndt worked. Arndt was married to this soldier, Kaitlyn Arndt, while he was actively pursuing an improper relationship with the seventeen year-old girl named Michelle, who he shot and killed.

To make matters worse, cases like these generally aren’t even factored into the DOD reports, because:

“In most cases, the victims are teenagers or young adults who have expressed an interest in a military career but have not yet enlisted. As a result, they are excluded from Pentagon surveys that show an alarming rise in the number of active-duty military personnel who say they have been sexually assaulted.”

So, who is getting punished for these kinds of offenses?

The air force has court-martialed about four recruiters a year since 2008 for this kind of behavior.

The army didn’t give court-martial stats, but a spokesman said that over the last five years, the army had three-hundred and twenty-seven substantiated sexual assault claims like these.

The navy refused to get specific as well, but they did say that twenty-four recruiters have been accused of sexual assault since 2010.

The Marine Corps refused to go into details about their recruiters’ misconduct, but said such cases would only be in the single digits.


www.libertynews.com/2013/05/sex-lies-and-crime-pentagon-says-sexual-assault-numbers-are-at-an-all-time-high/