“While overall reporting of sexual violence has increased incrementally since last year, today’s Pentagon report unfortunately reveals that the climate within the military is still a dangerous one for victims of sex crimes. 55 sexual assaults occur every day throughout the military, and 62% of survivors who reported sexual assault revealed that they experienced retaliation. Even though retaliation against victims of sexual assault is now a punishable offense under military law, we have no evidence that the services have prosecuted or convicted anyone who has retaliated against victims,” said Anu Bhagwati, Service Women’s Action Network executive director and former Marine Corps Captain.
“We shouldn’t be under any illusions about the improvements contained in this report. Most improvements are related to the quality of victims services, but fail to address ongoing distrust of the military judicial system by victims themselves. And it seems as though the Pentagon has made every effort in this report to prevent further military justice reform.
We urge the President to now put his support behind the Military Justice Improvement Act so that perpetrators are sent to trial, convicted, and expelled from the military. To stop the cycle of retaliation and punishment of victims, we need to put legal professionals, not commanders in charge of the judicial process,” Bhagwati said.
SWAN (www.servicewomen.org) is a national nonpartisan civil rights organization founded and led by women veterans. SWAN’s mission is to transform military culture by securing equal opportunity and the freedom to serve in uniform without discrimination, harassment or assault; and to reform veterans’ services to ensure high quality health care and benefits for women veterans and their families. You can follow Service Women’s Action Network on Twitter at twitter.com/servicewomen, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/servicewomen.