Texas senator calls for bipartisan support for military bill protecting child sex assault victims
On the Senate floor Wednesday, US Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) spoke out in support of The Military Protection Act, legislation proposed to protect military children sexually assaulted on a military base.
In March of this year, the Associated Press reported that cases of assaults and rapes of kids, by other juveniles, don’t get prosecuted, even when the assailant confesses to the assault. This same AP report stated that the U.S. Justice Department, which has jurisdiction over many military bases, doesn’t have the resources to handle these juvenile cases so it rarely does. The federal government prosecuted an estimated one in seven sex offense by a minor that were presented by military investigators.
The Military Protection Act will allow for greater support to juvenile victims of sexual assaults that take place on a military base. Cornyn said, “this (act) will close the jurisdictional loophole affecting military installations where minors commit criminal offenses on base.”
Currently, it is the federal government’s job to prosecute these cases, yet a Judge Advocate General noticed these cases often don’t get prosecuted due to the federal government’s lack of resources.
The proposed legislation allows the state to prosecute when the federal government can’t.
Cornyn stressed this should be a bi-partisan priority. Cornyn said children who live on military bases must be protected. “When they’re sexually assaulted, their juvenile assailants should not escape justice because of the constraints of the status quo,” the senator said.
