Reports of Family Violence, Abuse Within Military Rise

July 12, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Nancy Montgomery

The number of reports of family violence within the military, which had been in decline over several years, has been rising over the last two years, and reports of abused children and spouses increased significantly last year, a report by the Defense Department’s Family Advocacy Program shows. But what it means -- more people reporting who had kept silent in the past, better record-keeping or more people in the military abusing their spouses and children -- is unknown. “It’s really hard to say at this point,” said Tib Campise, analyst at the Family Advocacy Program, the armed forces program set up decades ago to prevent and treat domestic violence and child abuse within the military. “I don’t think I could answer whether anybody has a good sense of the prevalence (of family violence) across the military.”

Read the full story at Military.com.