Marine reports sexual assault on the rise, say officials

NORFOLK, VA., the number of sexual assaults, informed the Navy has grown 50 per cent last year, Navy officials said that Wednesday is a sign that a growing number of sailors feel more comfortable reporting an assault and create something you can do on the matter when they do.

The Navy said that it is the pace to finish the fiscal year 2013 this month with about 1,100 allegations of sexual assault. That depends on the 726 sexual assaults recorded in the previous fiscal year.

Rear Admiral Sean Buck, assault prevention top sexual and official response, Navy told reporters at Norfolk Naval Station that the increase was had with officials of the Navy how intensified efforts sailors that sexual assaults are being treated seriously. They also noted that there are many resources available for victims.

A report of the Department of Defense released in may estimated that through all the military branches, 26,000 service members had been sexually assaulted in the previous year. At the same time, only 2.949 sexual assault was officially reported throughout the Department of Defense, according to the report.

The survey said that there were a variety of reasons military didn't report a sexual assault to a military authority. The belief that could not be done if an assault was reported was one of the most common responses between respondents.

These estimates and a string of high-profile sexual military assault cases this year helped to fuel a renewed call to action in Washington to combat sexual assaults, that leaders have marine repeatedly said that it is a priority.

The Navy has suffered a campaign of awareness and prevention of sexual aggression aggressive over the past several years and recently announced changes in the way that sells alcohol based in an effort by curb behaviors that can lead to sexual assault.

"" We would like the needle to move tomorrow or tonight. ""But the feeling is that you have to be able to allow certain programs to put in place for mature, be spoken and will act accordingly, said Buck

Much of the efforts of the Navy focuses on educational campaigns, letting you know what constitutes a sexual assault sailors and where victims can report an assault and find the resources they need. It is led to the sailors more reports of sexual assaults, which Buck is a good thing as the Navy works to eradicate it from the fleet.

"What we try to do is to close that gap between anonymous surveys where sailors say that victims of sexual assaults in the past lead sailors really forward to the report," said Buck. "The initial goal is to close that gap where the number of reports in fact equal to the number of responses to the survey and then finally having two of those numbers reduced to zero."

The Navy released updated figures after Buck in an annual training conference for about 150 Navy sexual assault response coordinators. Coordinators, mostly civilians, are the bases around the world to ensure that victims have access to medical treatment, counseling, legal advice and other support services.

In the last fiscal year, coordinators also trained more than 2,000 commanders in their roles and responsibilities within the program of prevention and response to sexual assault of the Navy.

Buck said that sailors feedback is very positive.

"They are grateful for the attention of leaders and are also very aware of how broad the subject is discussed in Navy of war, from the workplace to the Pentagon, all the way up the hill from the Capitol,", said Buck.

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Brock Vergakis can be contacted at http://www.twitter.com/BrockVergakis

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