Military.com
by Amy Bushatz
Sep 03, 2015
"The alarm bell should be going off at DoD and we need to be looking at how are we working with our families"Child abuse and neglect cases confirmed by the U.S. military rose almost 10 percent in 2014, according to the Defense Department.
The issue should raise a red flag at the Pentagon, according to Karen Golden, a military family lobbyist at the Military Officers Association of America.
The number of incidents of child abuse and neglect increased 687 to 7,676 last year, according to Pentagon data released on Thursday. Because some cases involve more than one abuser, the actual number of victims totaled 5,838, or about a half-percent of the military's 1 million children.
Of the victims, 63 percent were neglected and 25 percent were physically abused, the figures show.
About half of the adults accused in the cases were civilian parents, family members or friends while the other half were military personnel, they show.
Experts in child abuse intervention said they believe the increase represents only a fraction of the abuse occurring within the military community. Abuse and neglect often go unreported because military families don't seek mental health help or family support out of fear of harming the service member's career, they said.
"It's really the strangest thing you've ever seen," said Ambra Roberts, a crises intervention specialist who works with child protective services near Fort Benning, Georgia. "When I'm dealing with these things first hand, I'm like, 'So you didn't call the police when your husband did this?' And every time not hurting his career is their reasoning for not doing the right thing for these kids."
She said she expects both the number of reported abuse and neglect cases and the actual amount of abuse and neglect will continue to climb as service members and their families attempt to protect their chances of staying in the military.
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