Child sexual abuse and other sexual offenses

Task & Purpose has looked into sexual offenses by members of the Marine Corps that involve children. From this report:

A significant portion of court-martial proceedings for Marine Corps personnel since the start of 2017 have included charges involving the sexual abuse of children, according to Department of Defense data reviewed by Task & Purpose, further detailing the growing scourge of child sexual abuse that’s marred the armed forces in recent years.

According to general and special court-martial disposition overviews of judicial proceedings published by Headquarters Marine Corps each month since January, nearly 18% of cases involved sexual assault or abuse of a child, attempted sexual assault or abuse or a child, or the possession, solicitation, distribution or production of child pornography.

The Task & Purpose data focus on trials and in only one of the armed forces. How many cases, involving what kinds of events, make it through the military justice appellate process? As the October 2016 Term draws to a close, it is clear that a remarkable percentage of the work of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces involves sexual misconduct of one kind or another. As of reveille today, the court had issued 30 decisions on full opinion. Only six had nothing to do with sex (involving things like drug abuse and larceny instead). If you count one case that involved child pornography and another of sexual harassment, all of the remaining 24 involved sex offenses (12 Army, 8 Air Force, 2 Coast Guard, and one each from the Navy and Marine Corps). In five of those 24 cases, there was a child victim. Three of those five were Army cases; the other two were from the Air Force.