Jewish war veterans are calling for meaningful action to be
taken to combat sexual abuse in the U.S. military.
“The Jewish War Veterans of the USA (JWV) condemns the
continued prevalence of reported and unreported male and female sexual
misconduct in the military and calls for an independent process to review and
prosecute these cases,” the group wrote in its Spring 2013 Jewish Veteran
magazine.
The magazine called the number of unwanted sexual contacts
reported by the Pentagon “alarming” and “seriously understated.”
In the past three years, the military has seen a 35 percent
increase in victims of unwanted sexual contact, from 19,300 victims in 2010 to
26,000 victims in 2012. The vast majority of the cases go unreported; 3,374
were reported in 2012.
According to the JWV, of the total number of active duty
service members affected by unwanted sexual contact, 38 percent of women and 17
percent of men indicated that the offender was someone of higher rank or grade
who was not in their chain of command, and 25 percent of women and 27 percent
of men indicated that the offender was within their chain of command.
Under current military law, victims of sexual misconduct
have no recourse to appeal decisions that provide leniency for their offender
and no alternative way to ensure that the attacker pays for his crime.
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