Air Force officials, acknowledging that many accused rapists are not criminally punished, have ordered prosecutors in the Pacific command region to provide more detailed legal advice to commanders on whether airmen should be prosecuted.
Unlike in the civilian world, commanders – not prosecutors – decide whether service members are prosecuted for crimes.
The mandate was among nine directives in a March 1 Air Force memo released to The Denver Post. The memo shows that more accused rapists serving in the region faced administrative punishments – which carry no possibility of jail time – than courts-martial between 2001 and 2003.
Rape cases in the Pacific territory have been on the rise, according to the memo from Gen. William Begert to his wing commanders. Begert oversees the region.
“Decisive action” is needed to help rape victims, Begert wrote, citing weak safety and mental- health services. He ordered improved crisis-intervention training for airmen, victim liaisons and other Air Force staffers, and demanded better coordination among victim liaisons and law enforcement.
“In some cases, mental health or life-skills support was provided (to rape victims) only when requested,” Begert stated in the memo. “This is unacceptable.”
Begert issued nine directives as the result of five months of research by an Air Force panel that interviewed staffers, analyzed rape cases and reviewed media reports. Those directives are being used as a model for the eight other major commands, which also are investigating how to improve the handling of sexual-assault cases.
Most of the Pacific mandates address flaws illustrated by stories in The Post, which found a shortage of victim-advocacy services and widespread leniency for accused offenders under a punishment system that lets commanders decide if soldiers are prosecuted.
The Air Force’s Pacific command region extends from the West Coast of the U.S. to east Africa, commanding about 45,000 military and civilian personnel.
Under that command, a sampling of 106 rape cases reviewed by the study panel included only 14 that went to court-martial (seven resulting in rape convictions), compared with 41 cases in which the accused got an administrative rebuke such as a fine or reprimand.
Two other cases went to civilian courts. In the rest of the Air Force cases, action is pending, no action has been taken, or the outcomes are unknown, the report said.
Military prosecutors should be more involved in helping commanders reach decisions to prosecute, Begert said in the memo. From now on, their advice must be documented in legal records for each case.
“These legal reviews must, at minimum, describe the facts of each case, compare them to the elements of relevant offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, assess the strength of the available evidence, and provide a prosecution recommendation,” the general said in the memo.
Eugene Fidell, director of the National Institute for Military Justice, called the new policy a step forward to help commanders make better decisions.
At the same time, Fidell said, it still leaves the decision to prosecute in the hands of people who often have conflicts of interest because they depend on their troops for battle readiness, he said.
“The new policy will help in the sense of forcing people to make a record of decisions, and commanders ought to have more lawyers helping with decisions,” he said.
“At least this way, commanders won’t be blindsided years after the fact with some second-guessing. That’s desirable. But it still perpetuates the key role of commanders. The military is not going to get rid of commanders’ discretion in these matters; that’s for Congress to take up.”
Among the other mandates for change just announced by the Air Force:
Victim liaisons, who will be better trained in crisis intervention and provide more than just legal advice, must be assigned to victims as soon as they report an offense. The study said that “in some cases” liaisons were not provided until criminal proceedings started.
A “sexual assault response team” composed of counselors, investigators, lawyers and others must be mobilized to help victims faster.
Even if enough evidence isn’t established to proceed with criminal trials, victim services such as counseling still must be provided to rape victims.
Cases that never lead to prosecution, which are usually dealt with administratively, must be recorded on Air Force databases.
Airmen must be briefed “upon arrival” to the Air Force on the military response and potential consequences of sexual assault.
At least five governmental investigations are examining how the U.S. military handles cases of sexual assault against service members – possibly the broadest review in its history. The congressional women’s caucus plans a hearing for March 31 to showcase testimony by victims. And an internal inquiry ordered by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is expected to be completed by late April.
On Monday, Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced the first bill this year intended to help military victims of sexual assault, proposing to lift the Department of Defense restriction that prohibits the military from paying for abortions that result from rapes.
“Any victim facing the horror of rape or sexual assault needs every option and support made available to them,” Snowe said in a joint statement with Boxer. “This bill removes a barrier under current law that prohibits the Department of Defense from providing access to critical reproductive health services for our troops.”
