AP: Child-on-child sex assault cases languish on US bases

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://apnews.com/article/hidden-victims-41da2867897042399f3f9c55cfde3f16

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A decade after the Pentagon began confronting rape in the ranks, the U.S. military frequently fails to protect or provide justice to the children of service members when they are sexually assaulted by other children on base, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Reports of assaults and rapes among kids on military bases often die on the desks of prosecutors, even when an attacker confesses. Other cases don’t make it that far because criminal investigators shelve them, despite requirements they be pursued.

The Pentagon does not know the scope of the problem and does little to track it. AP was able to document nearly 600 sex assault cases on base since 2007 through dozens of interviews and by piecing together records and data from the military’s four main branches and school system.

(snip)

The tens of thousands of kids who live on bases in the U.S. and abroad are not covered by military law. The U.S. Justice Department, which has jurisdiction over many military bases, isn’t equipped or inclined to handle cases involving juveniles, so it rarely takes them on.

[qazplm135]

1. The military doesn't have jurisdiction over kids

Not should it. If this is a problem, it's a federal civilian prosecuting problem, not a military problem. There's literally nothing the military can do to prosecute a child.

[jimfields33]

3. In the states, parents should call local police

Overseas is tougher, but calling local police might be the right way to go anyway.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. Which is...what the article is saying.

OTOH, sexual assaults among children certainly indicates a culture problem as well, which the military could do something about. But I'm not holding my breath.

[qazplm135]

6. Human culture?

There's nothing in that article that says military kids offend in greater numbers.

[Baked Potato]

8. Thank you. Exactly.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. Hard to say, isn't it, since the record-keeping is so crap.

[qazplm135]

10. No it isn't hard to say

Because there's no evidence not is there a reason to believe. Nor is there evidence it's more prevelant in the military versus the general population particularly when compared to similar age cohorts.

[BComplex]

2. I knew of a case of this. 1992. A young boy was raped by another, larger & slightly older boy.

The case went nowhere. The victim grew up using heavy drugs, and eventually ended up really screwed up.

Bullying is a crime of aggression and assault, and it needs to be treated as such. Rape, no matter the age, needs to be treated as the capital crime it is.

[FM123]

5. Very sad news indeed.

“The military is designed to kill people and break things,” said former Army criminal investigator Russell Strand, one of the military’s pioneering experts on sexual assault. “The primary mission, it’s not to deal with kids sexually assaulting kids on federal property.”

[qazplm135]

7. Its not sad

In the sense that you don't want an entity investigating something they have no jurisdiction or ability to deal with. Should be civilians. the problem is federal prosecutors and child services not being more involved.