Sexual Assault is an Act of Violence

WASHINGTON – Earlier today on MSNBC’s Jansing & Co., U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) talked about the continuing problem of sexual assault in the military, saying:

“Sexual assault, whether it is a rape or any other type of sexual assault, is an act of violence. It is not a sex act. It is not the result of passion or desire and it needs to be treated as the crime that it is. That’s why it needs to be taken out of the chain of command so that we can have trained prosecutors and a judicial system that actually ensures there is serious accountability for these crimes and that we make sure up and down the chain of command that there’s a clear understanding that this conduct is absolutely unacceptable.”

Wasserman Schultz has called U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) to apologize for comments he made Tuesday at a Senate Armed Services committee hearing about sexual crimes in the military that seemed to attribute the problem to natural hormone levels in males.

A recent Pentagon report estimated that as many as 26,000 military service members may have been assaulted in 2012. According to the report, only 3,374 instances were reported, and of those cases, there were 238 convictions. The Pentagon also reported a 35% surge in the number of active-duty personnel receiving “unwanted sexual contact” in the past two years.