Rise in rapes and sexual assaults on girls in the military

Date: 12th November 2021
Category: Armed conflict

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CRIN has recently worked on a Times article which reported that rape and sexual assault claims made by girls in the military under 18 years old have risen tenfold since 2015. Freedom of information requests show that 41 complaints of rape and sexual assault have been made to military police since 2015. With 215 girls serving in the military between 2015 and 2020, this is equivalent to 1 in 40 girls.

In the past year more than 3,000 teenagers under 18 enlisted, mainly to the army, where they make up a quarter of the intake. The numbers of enlisted girls aged 16 and 17 grew from 190 in 2015 to 290 this year. So far in 2021 there have been ten reports of rape and sexual assault, or one for every 29 girls.

To read the Times article, click here (paywall).