CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (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. In California, records the military acknowledges are incomplete documented at least 25 reports of sex assaults or rapes among children since 2007. Included were Camp Pendleton with 10 and Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert with nine.
Pentagon officials promised “appropriate actions.”
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