More Effort Needed to Stem Sex-Crimes

A task force that spent 15 months studying the problem of sexual assault in the military wants the Pentagon to play a larger role in efforts to crack down and eliminate the crime, but a top lawmaker doubts the Defense Department will have the resources to boost its anti-sex assault efforts.

The recommendation that the Pentagon assume oversight of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office was pitched to the subcommittee Feb. 3 by the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services, which told the congressmen that it continues to be a significant problem in the armed forces. The group's report showed that there were 2,908 reports of sexual assault in the services in fiscal year 2008, the most recent year included in its work. The lowest total given was for fiscal year 2007, with 1,700 reports.

The task force told the subcommittee that the SAPR program aimed at reducing sexual assaults and aiding victims has developed independently in each service, so that each are at different stages of development and institutionalization.

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"The task force recommends that the deputy secretary of defense take responsibility for the SAPRO [Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office] for a period of at least one year, and until the secretary of defense apprises Congress that the SAPR program is meeting its established goals," retired Rear Adm. and former Navy Chief of Chaplains Louis V. Iasiello told the subcommittee. "We further recommend that the SAPR program be given a more permanent complexion. The Defense Department needs to communicate the message that the SAPR program is here to stay and illustrate its resolve by designated funding for SAPR" in the DoD budget.

But subcommittee chairwoman Rep. Susan A. Davis, D-Calif., suggested that's not likely.

"Our experience has been that [DoD is] not in a position to be able to do that," she said. "They're not designed for that kind of oversight."

Task force member Air Force Brig. Gen. Sharon K.G. Dunbar said the group believes that oversight by the DoD would inspire program officials across the services to place greater emphasis on staffing.

"If you look at the issues that drove the recommendation, it stems from the under-resourced nature of staffing," Dunbar said. "If you go back the inception of the office, it was geared more toward response. It now needs to expand into prevention, training and other areas. In order to do that quickly, higher-level oversight … whether at the level recommended or elsewhere, we believe is prudent."

Among other recommendations made by the task force:

*Establish a consistent terminology and program standards across the services;

*Establish SAPRO advisory group of experts, military and civilian, at the DoD level;

*Revise SAPRO functions and structure so that the DoD and service program officials consult with each other on policy and legislative efforts;

*Modify SAPRO personnel and oversight to require each military installation have a career-level program coordinator – military or civilian – who has direct access to senior commanders and all commanders within their areas of responsibility;

The task force submitted its report to the subcommittee in December after spending a year touring military bases across the United States and overseas, then an additional three months compiling and writing it.

The task force was established as part of the 2005 Defense Authorization Act, but members who served on it were not even contacted until some time in 2007. And it was not until August 2008 that the group was given the go-ahead to do its research, task force chairman Iasiello said.

Iasiello told Military.com he does not know why it took nearly three years for the task force to start its work.