Sex Crimes By Soldiers Up 97 Percent In Five Years

When you read this keep in mind that there are more women serving in the military and that the military has been trying to get these crimes reported, or at least, that is what they have been saying for a long time. Those two factors have reports up but as this article points out, most still go unreported and the criminals get away with it. Sex crimes are committed by criminals and there should be a no tolerance policy. The vast majority of our armed forces serve with honor and dignity. That portion of the members of the military should make sure these criminals are charged and kicked out.

Womens Memorial

U.S. Army: Sex Crimes By Soldiers Up 97 Percent In Five Years

John Rudolf
1/20/12

Maj. Gen. Mary Kay Hertog, of the Air Force, and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta addressed the problem of sexual assaults in the military at a Pentagon press briefing this week.

Military leaders vowed this week to curb sexual assaults by and against U.S. soldiers after the release of a new report revealing that violent sex crimes committed by Army personnel nearly doubled since 2006. The majority of reported sex crimes occurred on U.S. soil, the Army said.

A U.S soldier committed a violent sex crime every six hours and 40 minutes in 2011, a rate far above that of the general population, the report found.

"This is unacceptable. We have zero tolerance for this," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, said at a press conference Thursday. "Army leaders take sexual assault seriously."

Chiarelli said the Army was confronting the problem by stepping up surveillance of barracks and cracking down on drug and alcohol abuse, a key factor in sexual assault.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also addressed the issue of sexual abuse within the military this week, announcing that the Pentagon was creating a database to track offenders and would provide increased funding to train sex crime investigators.
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