As France starts (finally) to re-appraise its own situation, the number of sexual assaults in the U.S. Army rose by 60 percent in 2013, notably thanks to victims feeling more confident to report and talk about it.
Approximately 5,400 cases of sexual assaults were filed in 2013, noted Washington spokesperson Cathy Wilkinson, quoting “preliminary” statistics. “This is a 60-per cent increase in victim reports,” as compared to 3,374 aggressions reported in 2012, she insisted.
After a resurgence of substantial cases of sexual assault in the Army over the past two years, the Pentagon has used the excuses of a crisis, while senators have demanded measures to be taken to stem the phenomenon. President Barack Obama expressed his indignation; Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has sworn to reverse the trend by implementing a series of measures. The Pentagon encouraged also the victims to report these aggressions without the fear of hampering their careers.
“We assess this increase in reports as consistent with a growing level of confidence in our response system,” whose victims report increasingly these aggressions, explained Cathy Wilkinson. Nevertheless, during a hearing Wednesday in the Senate, victims relayed to the senators how they had been humiliated, and sometimes demoted, when they had reported these aggressions.
In May, Hagel called for a background check on recruiters and advisors to ascertain whether they were qualified to fill these “positions of trust,” which subsequently led to a layoff of 588 soldiers, who could have been recruiters, victims’ lawyers, or even coordinators in charge of bringing solution to the victims, added another spokesperson, David Patterson.
These soldiers have been dismissed notably for sexual assault, including on minors, pornography or drunk driving. At least 79 of these soldiers had been discharged from services, according to Patterson. These numbers are 10 times higher than the ones the Pentagon published in August.
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