Senators Introduce Legislation to Assist Victims of Sexual Trauma in Military

Today, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, along with her colleagues Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), introduced bipartisan legislation to assist victims of sexual trauma in the military. The Support for Survivors Act would assist servicemembers who were victims of sexual trauma during their military service by requiring the Department of Defense to ensure life-long storage of all documents connected with reports of sexual assaults and sexual harassment across the military branches. The legislation would also prevent the military from destroying any records relating to sexual assault.

“The men and women in our military put their lives on the line for our country and they deserve to know that the military is looking out for them in their time of need. Too often victims of sexual assault don’t report the crime because they are afraid of retribution or that nothing will be done. We must do better. This legislation will provide victims with the tools they need to seek justice and guarantee them the confidentiality they deserve throughout the process,” McCaskill said.

Earlier this year, following a series of stories in the St. Louis Post Dispatch about the incidence of sexual assault at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, McCaskill sent a letter to Major General David Quantock, the Commanding General at Fort Leonard Wood, and subsequently met privately with him in her Washington office. Quantock has assured McCaskill that the base is taking the allegations seriously and has brought in a special prosecutor to handle sexual assault cases, among other changes. McCaskill also continued to follow this issue by questioning top officials from the Pentagon on what the military is doing broadly to address the issue of sexual assault at a hearing of the Armed Services Committee.

Currently, there is no coordinated policy across the service branches to ensure the preservation of medical and other reports connected with sexual trauma. Each service branch has been left to develop its own policy, resulting in inconsistent recordkeeping and records often being destroyed. Long-term preservation of records currently helps a victim pursue legal action and records can also be used as evidence in a later crime involving the same perpetrator.

In recent years, there has been an increase in reports of sexual assaults in the military. According to the Department of Defense, there were 3,158 official reports of sexual assaults in the military in 2010. Because most incidents are not reported to a military authority, the Pentagon estimates this number represents only 13 to 14 percent of total assaults – making the total actual number of sexual assaults in the military potentially as high as 20,000 in 2010.

Research has shown that sexual trauma not only hurts the victims, but can also take a toll on their fellow servicemembers by severely undermining military cohesion, morale, and overall force effectiveness.

The Support for Survivors Act would:

· Require the Department of Defense to ensure the preservation of documents connected with reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military.

· Ensure full privacy and identity protection for both the victim and the perpetrator, if known.

· Ensure life-long access by the servicemember to his or her personal documents.

· Grant the VA access to documents only at the request of a servicemember, for the purpose of assisting with the processing of a disability compensation claim.

· Allow the Department of Defense to review the data (but not the names of the individuals mentioned in the reports) to improve research and reporting.