FORT BENNING, Ga. (AP) - A decade after the Pentagon began confronting rape in the ranks, the U.S. military frequently fails to provide justice to the children of service members when they are sexually assaulted by other kids on base.
An Associated Press investigation finds that sex assault cases occurring where military kids live and learn often die on the desks of prosecutors. Criminal investigators shelved an unknown number of reports.
Instead of punishment or rehabilitation, offenders may be shuffled into the civilian world.
The Pentagon doesn’t know the extent of the problem. On three Army bases in Georgia, records the military acknowledge are incomplete show at least 24 sex assault cases among children or teens since 2007. Fort Benning had 18 cases, Fort Stewart five and Fort Gordon one.
Pentagon officials promised “appropriate actions.”
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