美国数百名军人家属儿童被性虐

AS IT IS 2016-01-07 Hundreds of US Military Children Sexually Abused 美国数百名军人家属儿童被性虐

Hundreds of children in American military families are sexually abused each year, reports the Associated Press.

The Defense¹ Department confirmed at least 1,584 cases of sexual abuse against military dependents over four years ending in 2014.

Children in 840 cases were sexually assaulted by enlisted² service members. Most of the abusive enlisted members were male and ranked in the higher levels of enlisted service.

The second-largest group of abusers were family members of the victims. There were 332 cases.

The victims were overwhelmingly female.

As many as 160 more cases of sexual abuse could have happened during the 2010 to 2014 period. But the data were not completely clear. These cases could involve a child who was victimized multiple times or by a repeat abuser.

The numbers only include cases involving military dependents, which are the only child victims the department tracks.

A lack of transparency in military courts blocks a clear picture of child sex abuse, says the AP. More than 1 million children are offspring of service members. The known number of cases appears statistically⁴ small, the report says.

The Defense Department did not release the complete report. It did not include the age of offenders⁵ or victims, or where the assaults happened.

Officials also omitted the branch of service where the sexual abuse occurred. The Defense Department said it avoided identifying and “re-victimizing” the abused.

It is unclear how many of the assaults resulted in legal action. The cases were based on reports to the Defense Department's Family Advocacy Program. It does not track legal action, the department said.

An AP investigation⁶ published in November found that more people are jailed for child sex crime than any other offense⁷ in the military. But the military justice system keeps much of its work secret.

Three Democratic Party senators have reacted publicly to the AP report. They urged Defense Secretary Ash Carter to end secrecy⁸ in the military justice system. They demanded that documents from sex crimes trials be more open and available.

The senators also raised concern in a letter they wrote to Carter last month. They said they were worried that the Defense Department's yearly report to Congress does not accurately⁹ count military sex crimes because it does not include those against children.

 Words in This Story

assault – v. to violently attack (someone or something)

data – n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze¹⁰, or plan something

enlisted – adj.  serving in the armed forces in a rank below the rank of officers

transparency – n.  openness; the quality that makes something obvious or easy to understand

statistic³ – n. a number that represents a piece of information (such as information about how often something is done, how common something is, etc.)

omit – v. to leave out (someone or something): to not include (someone or something)

duplication – n. the state of containing copies of something or being a copy of something

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 statistic   

n.统计量；adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• Official statistics show real wages declining by 24%.官方统计数字表明实际工资下降了24%。
• There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths in the battle.关于阵亡人数没有可靠的统计数字。

4 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

5 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

8 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

9 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

10 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。