National

Pentagon Report Focuses on Military Sex Crimes

By John Burnett

Published May 13, 2004 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 20 years ago.

A new Department of Defense report criticizes the way the military handles internal cases of sexual assault. A task force examined how the military cares for sexual assault victims, and investigated cases in which troops are accused of attacking their colleagues. The report calls for a wide range of improvements including rape prevention, criminal investigation and victim counseling. NPR's John Burnett reports.

National

John Burnett

John Burnett is a national correspondent based in Austin, Texas, who has been assigned a new beat for 2022—Polarized America—to explore all facets of our politically and culturally divided nation. Prior to this assignment, Burnett covered immigration, Southwest border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.