US Congress on Thursday reacted to a The Associated Press investigation into sexual assault among children on US military bases by demanding that the defense and justice departments explain how they plan to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said it had begun its own examination of the issue and a top Democrat on the committee said she would call a hearing within six months.
Four US senators, including the veteran head of the Senate Armed Services Committee and two others who have made sexual assault a keynote issue, sent letters to the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice with questions about sex assault among the military’s children.
The investigation revealed that reports of sexual violence among children on US military bases at home and abroad often die on the desks of prosecutors, even when an attacker confesses.
Other cases are shelved by criminal investigators, despite requirements they be pursued.
Many cases get lost in a dead zone of justice, the report found, with neither victim nor offender receiving help.
“The report reveals an inscrutable system that fails these children at every level,” US Senator Patty Murray wrote.
In a letter to US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Senator John McCain and Senator Jack Reed, leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked that the Pentagon’s inspector general begin a “comprehensive assessment” of department policies related to sexual assault among military children in schools and elsewhere on base.
“It disturbs us to learn that the department’s policies and procedures may prevent efforts to help child victims of misconduct ... and to rehabilitate and hold child offenders accountable,” they wrote.
Separately, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrote to US Department of Justice inspector general requesting a “comprehensive investigation” into how many child sex assault cases have been prosecuted and why the majority have been declined.
Inspector general offices are independent entities within federal departments charged with investigating potential problems within agencies. They do not have to accept requests for action from Capitol Hill.
US Representative Jackie Speier called the finding of nearly 600 reports of sexual assaults among children on bases since 2007 “a national disgrace and a military scandal.”
In a separate letter to Mattis, Murray demanded answers by early next month to a long list of questions about how the US Department of Defense Education Activity handles assaults on its campuses.
“As a mother and grandmother, I cannot tolerate the thought that our military children are not receiving the protection and support they deserve,” Murray wrote. “I trust you share my outrage.”
“We owe our military families — the children of the personnel who are fighting our wars — safety and support,” she wrote.
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