Many Naval Academy Charges Dismissed

[deadparrot]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Sexual assault charges against students at the Naval Academy are routinely dismissed without trial, an analysis of Navy documents found.

The review of 56 midshipmen accused of sexual assault since 1998 found only two were convicted, one in a civilian court, according to the review by The Washington Post of Navy incident reports, case summaries and data released by the school.

In virtually every other case, deals were struck forcing the alleged offender to leave the academy without facing trial and without a criminal record.

Reports of sexual assault have been increasing at the academy, in part because of an effort to encourage victims to report incidents, but advocates say increased reporting is only part of the solution.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060318/ap_on_re_us/academy_sexual_assault

[LostinVA]

1. *sigh* Unfortunately this isn't a surprise

Ar either the military academies or in the actual armed forces. I keep on hoping this weird, engraved mindset will change...

[saigon68]

9. Sounds like the catholic church in Boston

[caligirl]

2. My hubby was there when women were first admitted, he use

to talk about some strong resentments some of the men had about this. That military culture is sick.We left it, and our lives improved greatly because we did.

[acmejack]

5. What year did he graduate?

I am trying to get a feel for when they let women aboard ships, on combatants, and in the USNA respectively.

[caligirl]

6. 78 was his year group, but 79 was the last one, as he puts it, to be

2.0, or 2 testicles per midshipman. so the class of 80 had women.

[acmejack]

8. I left in 84.

I went to my last shore tour in december 80 so I really missed what was happening in the Fleet. I wondered about that, I saw some of the problems with them attempting to integrate women aboard the large non combatants & always was curious. The Navy was definitely a boys club.

As the saying went "The US Navy-200 years of tradition, unhampered by progress"

[salin]

3. I can only hope that the embarassment/experience

is enough of a wakeup call to prevent those involved to repeat the act. I fear, however, that in some cases it might just make an anger at women even more deep-seeded and thus more likely to erupt again in an act of violence against a woman.

[bobbieinok]

4. N deMille's The General's Daughter....she's 1 of 1st women at

West Point and is constantly raped and coerced into not reporting it......that's what I remember from reading this horrifically depressing book years ago

[salin]

7. That movie traumatized me...

brought back my own rape victim issues... glad that it was made and forced some conversation about the number of issues raised. Guess that raising the issues haven't been enough to raise awareness and change the culture, let alone change the likely outcomes of being 'caught' - (eg dismissal with NO charges and a clean record.)