{"id":31199,"date":"2019-08-05T19:48:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T19:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/05\/the-pentagon-wants-your-help-in-nabbing-serial-rapists\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:37:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:37:48","slug":"the-pentagon-wants-your-help-in-nabbing-serial-rapists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/08\/05\/the-pentagon-wants-your-help-in-nabbing-serial-rapists\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon wants your help in nabbing serial rapists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Military sexual assault<\/a> survivors have a new option to document their experiences and help prevent repeat offenders from continuing a pattern of violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Catch a Serial Offender Program launched Monday, according to a Pentagon release, with a website for survivors to send in information and find out if their assaults resemble others\u2019 across the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a new, confidential way for service members and their adult dependents who have experienced sexual assault, who choose to file restricted reports<\/a>, to provide information about their incident or alleged offender to military investigators to identify serial sex offenders,\u201d the release said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the DoD system, survivors of sexual assault have two reporting options: an unrestricted report, which triggers a criminal investigation, and a restricted report, which is kept for informational purposes but is never pursued by a command or law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Survivors often opt for a restricted report in order to have their assaults documented and receive some recovery services, but avoid the pressure of being a witness in a prosecution. Those reports are kept locally and are shared with DoD for research purposes, but they are private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With CATCH<\/a>, a survivor can voluntarily add information from their restricted reports to a national database, where it can be compared against other military law enforcement crime data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the information appears to match with other allegations, the victims will be notified individually by a specially-trained CATCH victim point of contact,\u201d according to the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if the knowledge that their attacker has assaulted someone else motivates them, the survivor can choose to convert their restricted report to an unrestricted report, triggering both an investigation and a host of mental health, legal and other services to help survivors cope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are constantly looking for new ways to empower victims to participate in the military justice process through our Sexual Assault Prevention and Response programs,\u201d Elizabeth Van Winkle, executive director of the Office of Force Resiliency, said in the release. \u201cWe encourage greater reporting to connect victims with the care they need and as a way to hold offenders appropriately accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new system comes at a time when the military is reeling from a reported jump in sexual assaults between 2016 and 2018 \u2015 about 38 percent, according to a biannual survey whose results came out in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other. This is unacceptable,\u201d then-Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan wrote in a letter to the department. \u201cWe cannot shrink from facing the challenge head on. We must, and will, do better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t