Page 3 - aruba-today-20190503

A3
U.S. NEWS Friday 3 May 2019

ASSAULT must, and will, do better." 133 service members filed vestigated by department type of punishment, rang-
Continued from Previous Page Galbreath said one retaliation complaints. Of inspectors general and ul- ing from counseling to a
The studies also found that change expected to be- those, two-thirds were in- timately 13 received some court-martial.q
there are often more prob- gin later this summer will
lems in military units that have the military begin
have poor command cli- comparing information on
mates or low levels of unit offenders from victims who
cohesion. file so-called "restricted" re-
Last year, when the Pen- ports. Filing a restricted re-
tagon announced that port allows victims to seek
assaults in 2017 had in- treatment but they avoid
creased by 10% over 2016, any criminal complaint or
then-Defense Secretary Jim prosecution. Many victims
Mattis called the problem choose that route to skirt
a cancer in the ranks and any potential retribution or
ordered the Department to stigma of a public trial.
re-double its efforts to pre- Under the new plan, Gal-
vent and respond to sex- breath said the military
ual assaults. On Thursday, would put information on
Acting Defense Secretary alleged attackers into a da-
Patrick Shanahan called tabase so repeat offend-
this year's increase unac- ers can be identified. Gal-
ceptable and directed the breath said if officials find
military to enact new pro- a possible repeat offender,
grams to identify serial of- they would go back to the
fenders and beef up scruti- victims to see if they might
ny of new recruits to ensure change their minds and
they have the right charac- agree to prosecute.
ter for military service. According to the survey,
"Sexual assault and sexual 21% of the women who
harassment are persistent said they reported a sex-
challenges," Shanahan ual assault believed that
said in a memo to military they suffered some type of
service leaders. "We can- retaliation aimed at stop- Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan listens, Wednesday May 1, 2019, during a House Ap-
propriations subcommittee on budget hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
not shrink from facing the ping them from making Associated Press
challenge head on. We a complaint. Separately,