New effort launched to combat sexual assault

New effort launched to combat sexual assault
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Sep 10, 2008 5:42:30 EDT

In an effort to force new life into a stagnating sexual assault response program, the Army will go after sexual predators in its ranks by going after its own culture of inaction to stop a rape before it happens.

At a week-long training summit in Alexandria, Va., that began Monday, more than 250 civilians, division level general officers and their sexual assault prevention response officers are huddling with sexual violence experts to hash out a more aggressive approach to ending rape in the Army.

Army Secretary Pete Geren opened the summit by reminding his audience that in 2007 the Army’s incidence of sexual assault was 2.6 per thousand soldiers, the highest of all the services, according to a Defense Department report released earlier this year.

“This is a profound disgrace because we’re a values-based organization,” Geren said, citing the dichotomy of having soldiers like Medal of Honor recipient Spc. Ross McGinnis and Silver Star recipient Pfc. Monica Brown in the same Army with soldiers who would prey on other soldiers.

“Sexual assault is a crime that is repugnant to the core values that define our Army,” Geren said. “Soldiers who live the Army values must not only never commit the crimes of assault or sexual harassment but must actively work to rid our Army of these crimes. It is a soldier’s duty to protect his fellow soldier from harm — on the battlefield, in the barracks, on-post or off.”


Rest of artcle at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_sexualassault_090908w/%2e



uhc comment: Memo to Pete: Stop recruiting criminals and your crime rate may go down.