Calendar of Events  /   Announcements  /  The Story  /  Timeline of Milestones  /  Articles /  Links  /  Hotline Numbers  /  

Bulletin Board  /  1999 Millennium Conference  /  Conference Materials  /  Photos  /  Video Clips  /   Sign our Guest book

"Domestic violence is an offense against the institutional values of the Military Services of the United States of America. It is an affront to human dignity, degrades the overall readiness of our armed forces, and will not be tolerated in the Department of Defense," begins a report issued this month by the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence. Presented by the Task Force to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the report addresses domestic violence and prevention in the military.

The report is the first of three on domestic violence that the Task Force will submit over three years. The Task Force, which has 24 civilian and military members, was commissioned to develop a "long-term, strategic plan" to help end domestic violence in the military. It is co-chaired by Marine Corps Lt. General Jack W. Klimp, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and Deborah Tucker, Executive Director of the National Training Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence in Austin Texas.

The Task Force analyzed the military's current policies concerning domestic violence. The Department of Defense (DoD) is the nation's largest employer and "sponsors the largest employer-based domestic violence prevention and intervention program in the country," the report says. While the DoD has "already made a significant commitment of manpower and financial resources" to address domestic violence, the report finds that "the DoD can and must continue to improve its response to this national problem."

Reprinted and adapted from 'News Flash' (http://www.fvpf.org/newsflash), an online newsletter of the Family Violence Prevention Fund.