Washington – A year after Congress ordered it to change its policies, the military said Tuesday that it is transforming how it handles sexual assaults, offering victims confidential reporting for the first time.
“Our traditional system does not afford sexual-assault victims the care and support they need … and we are moving aggressively to put new systems in place to address this shortcoming,” said Undersecretary of Defense David Chu. “The well-being of victims is a priority for us, and we are doing whatever it will take to ensure they get the best possible care.”
Victim advocates, however, criticized the plan as lacking in detail and often misfocused.
“I think that considering what Congress has authorized them to do, they have not covered all the bases,” said Kate Summers, spokeswoman for the Miles Foundation, a nonprofit that helps victims of military domestic violence and sexual assault.
Congress had ordered the Defense Department to have a new sexual-assault policy in place by Jan. 1. The Pentagon issued goals and guidelines, what Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col Joe Richard called “core principles.”
The different military branches now have six months to say how they will put the plans into effect. The principles focus on prevention through education and give victims help through advocates and limited confidentiality when a rape is reported, Chu said.
The plan offers no details on what services will be offered to victims, how many people will be available to offer support or how the military will supplement rape evidence kits, which have been in short supply.
It does not discuss how victim advocates will fit in the command structure or give them any whistle-blower protection if the assailant is a superior officer, Summers said.
“It’s very hard to tell if there are big changes or incremental steps,” said Sarah Graham Miller, spokeswoman with RAINN, the nation’s largest advocacy group for sexual-assault victims.
The Denver Post in 2003 detailed widespread flaws in the armed forces’ justice system and victim services. Those and subsequent stories produced calls in Congress for change.
As of Jan. 1, military members stationed in Iraq have reported 286 sexual assaults, according to the Miles Foundation. There has also been an increase in rapes around bases where service members have returned from Iraq duty, including Fort Carson near Colorado Springs, Summers said.
Victims for the first time will receive limited confidentiality. Advocacy groups said that pledge falls short of what is needed.
Under previous military policy, a victim had confidentiality only when she went to the chaplain. Now that confidentiality will be expanded if she talks to health-care workers or victims advocates. However, if she wants to go forward with prosecution, her identity will be revealed in the military court, as part of due process for the accused, Richard said.
Chu sent directives, with some additional specifics, to military leaders.
For example, commanding officers now have a checklist of steps they must take after a sexual assault is reported in that commander’s unit.
“To the maximum extent possible, commanders should consider the victim’s desires prior to any reassignment decision,” the directive says. Commanders are also told to consider orders barring the accused from having contact with the victim.
One directive says commanders still can require a sexual-assault victim to leave the military if that is “in the best interest of either the Armed Forces, or the victim, or both.”
“That means their needs trump hers,” Summers said.
Among the new directives is the creation of a supervisory position that will oversee the handling of all sexual assaults.
Education will begin in basic training and continue throughout military members’ careers, said Air Force Brig. Gen. K.C. McClain, commander of the joint task force on sexual-assault prevention and response.
Chu said sexual assault is “a crime defined as intentional sexual conduct characterized by use of force, physical threat or abuse of authority, or when the victim does not or cannot consent.” The Defense Department said the new policies for dealing with sexual assaults will apply to all personnel, including students at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
The Post’s series showed that many accused of sexual assault were given relatively light administrative punishment rather than a court-martial. The new plan does not address prosecutions or penalties for those accused. Richard said that falls under the uniform code of military justice.
Staff writer Anne C. Mulkern can be reached at 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com.
