Sexual assaults ‘alarmingly high’ in the US military: Veteran
Fri Dec 5, 2014
Structural problems in the US military have contributed to an “alarmingly high” number of sexual assaults against both women and men, in spite of enormous efforts to stem the crisis, an Iraq War veteran says.
“The rate of sexual assaults in the military against both men and women is alarmingly high” despite “massive amounts of money being claimed to programs to prevent rape and sexual assaults,” said Seth Manzel, an Army sergeant and infantryman who was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005.
“The problem is structural” since the perpetrators are never jailed and can go to work the next day, even work next to the victim, Manzel told Press TV on Thursday. “Offenders are able to re-offend over and over and over again because there’s not a good system in place to prevent them from doing so,” he said. “In fact, the system that we have in place benefits them and allows them to continue to progress with their job and become more successful as soldiers.”
A new study shows that reports of rapes and other forms of sexual assaults in the US military increased eight percent over the past year.
US military troops reported nearly 6,000 sexual assaults in the fiscal year that ended September 2014 compared with 5,518 the year before, defense officials said on Wednesday.
Based on a separate survey conducted by the Rand Corporation, about 19,000 US services members said they had been the victim of unwanted sexual contact this year.
Sexual assault victims in the US military are often denied promotion by their commanders or face retaliation if they report an assault to the authorities, according to the Pentagon.
Fri Dec 5, 2014
Structural problems in the US military have contributed to an “alarmingly high” number of sexual assaults against both women and men, in spite of enormous efforts to stem the crisis, an Iraq War veteran says.
“The rate of sexual assaults in the military against both men and women is alarmingly high” despite “massive amounts of money being claimed to programs to prevent rape and sexual assaults,” said Seth Manzel, an Army sergeant and infantryman who was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005.
“The problem is structural” since the perpetrators are never jailed and can go to work the next day, even work next to the victim, Manzel told Press TV on Thursday. “Offenders are able to re-offend over and over and over again because there’s not a good system in place to prevent them from doing so,” he said. “In fact, the system that we have in place benefits them and allows them to continue to progress with their job and become more successful as soldiers.”
A new study shows that reports of rapes and other forms of sexual assaults in the US military increased eight percent over the past year.
US military troops reported nearly 6,000 sexual assaults in the fiscal year that ended September 2014 compared with 5,518 the year before, defense officials said on Wednesday.
Based on a separate survey conducted by the Rand Corporation, about 19,000 US services members said they had been the victim of unwanted sexual contact this year.
Sexual assault victims in the US military are often denied promotion by their commanders or face retaliation if they report an assault to the authorities, according to the Pentagon.