Military's 'Restricted Reporting' Draws Fire By John Lasker
WeNews correspondent
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A Defense Department official says a new recourse option for victims of military sex assault is encouraging more to seek care and maintain privacy. Critics call it a military cop out that lets perpetrators go free and lets commanders off the hook.
(WOMENSENEWS)--U.S. Army veteran Susan Avila-Smith runs the military sexual trauma advocacy group VETWOW, or Veteran Women Organizing Women, based in Seattle. Sadly, it's a group that numbers 3,000 and is growing.
Avila-Smith has been advocating for military sexual trauma victims since 1995, after the military refused to punish her Army ex-husband after he "jumped up and down" on her pregnant stomach and ended her pregnancy.
When she sought justice from her commanding officers, "I was told not to talk to anybody about it or I would be BCD'd, which is a 'Bad-Conduct Discharge,'" she said
Avila-Smith says of VETWOW's 3,000 veterans who were raped during their enlistment by a fellow soldier, nearly all told their commanding officers about the crime, in compliance with military law. Many, she says, described the backlash from the chain of command as worse than rape.
All too often, Avila-Smith says, commanding officers try to intimidate rape victims into silence. Commanding officers, who are judge and jury when it comes to indicting soldiers for alleged crimes while on duty, have also under-prosecuted military rape by ignoring a victim's accusation, for instance.
The result, she says, is that many who suffer military sexual assault say nothing and try to cope with the psychological aftermath on their own. A 2008 survey of 103 military sexual assault victims by the Government Accountability Office showed half never bothered to report the crime because they believed nothing would come of it and they also feared being ostracized.
To help change how the U.S. military deals with sexual assault committed within its ranks and its aftermath, Susan Burke, a highly-regarded attorney, will be filing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of military sexual trauma survivors next week. The lawsuit, which will be announced Feb. 15 during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., will ask for both damages and changes in the military's practices.
How can anyone justify threatening rape victims with a Bad-Conduct Discharge if they dare to speak out about their assaults?
I'm just dying to hear the argument, if you've got one!
I'm also curious how we could keep the prposed civilian oversight/review boards from becoming politicized & ineffective; or how they could really become effective in the first place....
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Military's 'Restricted Reporting' Draws Fire
ReplyDeleteBy John Lasker
WeNews correspondent
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A Defense Department official says a new recourse option for victims of military sex assault is encouraging more to seek care and maintain privacy. Critics call it a military cop out that lets perpetrators go free and lets commanders off the hook.
(WOMENSENEWS)--U.S. Army veteran Susan Avila-Smith runs the military sexual trauma advocacy group VETWOW, or Veteran Women Organizing Women, based in Seattle. Sadly, it's a group that numbers 3,000 and is growing.
Avila-Smith has been advocating for military sexual trauma victims since 1995, after the military refused to punish her Army ex-husband after he "jumped up and down" on her pregnant stomach and ended her pregnancy.
When she sought justice from her commanding officers, "I was told not to talk to anybody about it or I would be BCD'd, which is a 'Bad-Conduct Discharge,'" she said
Avila-Smith says of VETWOW's 3,000 veterans who were raped during their enlistment by a fellow soldier, nearly all told their commanding officers about the crime, in compliance with military law. Many, she says, described the backlash from the chain of command as worse than rape.
All too often, Avila-Smith says, commanding officers try to intimidate rape victims into silence. Commanding officers, who are judge and jury when it comes to indicting soldiers for alleged crimes while on duty, have also under-prosecuted military rape by ignoring a victim's accusation, for instance.
The result, she says, is that many who suffer military sexual assault say nothing and try to cope with the psychological aftermath on their own. A 2008 survey of 103 military sexual assault victims by the Government Accountability Office showed half never bothered to report the crime because they believed nothing would come of it and they also feared being ostracized.
To help change how the U.S. military deals with sexual assault committed within its ranks and its aftermath, Susan Burke, a highly-regarded attorney, will be filing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of military sexual trauma survivors next week. The lawsuit, which will be announced Feb. 15 during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., will ask for both damages and changes in the military's practices.
How can anyone justify threatening rape victims with a Bad-Conduct Discharge if they dare to speak out about their assaults?
ReplyDeleteI'm just dying to hear the argument, if you've got one!
I'm also curious how we could keep the prposed civilian oversight/review boards from becoming politicized & ineffective; or how they could really become effective in the first place....
Any thoughts?