Sexual abuse
The children of US military members reportedly are victims in hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse each year.
The children of US military members are victims in hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse each year, according to data the US Defense Department provided exclusively to The Associated Press.
The abuse of military dependents is committed most often by male enlisted troops, the data show, followed by family members.
The figures offer greater insight into the sexual abuse of children committed by service members, a problem of uncertain scale due to a lack of transparency into the military’s legal proceedings. With more than 1 million military dependents, the number of cases appears statistically small. But for a profession that prides itself on honor and discipline, any episodes of abuse cast a pall.
Those numbers fall wellshort of a full picture.
Ages of the offenders and victims, locations of the incidents of sexual abuse were omitted. It’s also unclear how many of the incidents resulted in legal action.
An AP investigation published in November found more inmates are in military prisons for child sex crimes than for any other offense. But the military’s opaque justice system keeps the public from knowing the full extent of their crimes.
There were at least 1,584 substantiated cases of military dependents being sexually abused between fiscal years 2010 and 2014. Enlisted service members sexually abused children in 840 cases. Family members of the victims accounted for the second largest category with 332 cases.
Most of the enlisted offenders were males whose ranks ranged between E-4 and E-6. In the Marine Corps and Army, for example, those troops are corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants. Officers were involved in 49 of the cases. The victims were overwhelmingly female.
Kathy Robertson, manager of the Family Advocacy Program, said the incident rates reflect military’s demographics. Most of the cases involve the E-4 and E-6 ranks because they are the largest number of active-duty personnel and the largest number of parents in the military, she said.