Peace Corps disputes conclusions of Dayton Daily News report
Peace Corps spokeswoman Barbara Daly disputed the conclusions reached by the Dayton Daily News. She said that since 1997, the agency has had a 30 percent decrease in the rate of major sexual assault cases -- excluding such things as touching and unwanted kissing -- and a 35 percent decrease in the rate of rape cases.
Read and comment on this story from the Washington Post that Peace Corps spokeswoman Barbara Daly disputes the Dayton Daily News story that assaults against Peace Corps volunteers around the world more than doubled from 1991 to 2002, with nearly 70 percent committed against women. She said that since 1997, the agency has had a 30 percent decrease in the rate of major sexual assault cases -- excluding such things as touching and unwanted kissing -- and a 35 percent decrease in the rate of rape cases."They're lumping major and minor assaults and coming up with this number. That's where they get this number that's so high," Daly said Saturday. "The majority of the increase is in these minor assaults," she added.
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Data Show Assaults on Peace Corps Workers Up
Associated Press Sunday, October 26, 2003; Page A15
DAYTON, Ohio, Oct. 25 -- Assaults against Peace Corps volunteers around the world more than doubled from 1991 to 2002, with nearly 70 percent committed against women, the Dayton Daily News reported.
A Peace Corps database shows that assault cases jumped 125 percent during the 11-year period, while the number of volunteers increased by 29 percent, the newspaper said.
Peace Corps spokeswoman Barbara Daly disputed the newspaper's interpretation. She said that since 1997, the agency has had a 30 percent decrease in the rate of major sexual assault cases -- excluding such things as touching and unwanted kissing -- and a 35 percent decrease in the rate of rape cases.
"They're lumping major and minor assaults and coming up with this number. That's where they get this number that's so high," Daly said Saturday. "The majority of the increase is in these minor assaults," she added.
The newspaper said that although the number of rape cases did decrease from 20 in 1997 to 13 in 2002, the number of all sexual assault cases increased from 73 to 94 during that period and the overall number of assault cases -- including aggravated assaults, simple assaults, sexual assaults and death threats -- rose from 251 to 283. A single rape or assault case could involve multiple workers, the newspaper noted.
The Daily News spent 20 months examining thousands of records and interviewed more than 500 people in 11 countries.
It said that although many volunteers have little or no experience traveling outside the United States, some are sent to live alone in remote areas of some of the world's most dangerous countries and are left unsupervised for months at a time.
In 62 percent of the more than 2,900 assault cases since 1990, the victim was alone, and in 59 percent the victim was a woman in her twenties, the Daily News said.
Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez told the Daily News that his number one priority is the safety of the agency's 7,533 volunteers serving in 71 countries.
"We send volunteers only to countries and communities where they can serve safely, and we have systems in place to maximize their safety and security," Vasquez said.
Two officials who oversaw the Peace Corps's security over the past 12 years said they had warned about the increased dangers to volunteers but that the agency has ignored many of their concerns.
"Nobody wanted to talk about security. It suppresses the recruitment numbers," said Michael O'Neill, the Peace Corps's security director from 1995 to August 2002.
In 1992, John Hale, then the acting inspector general of the Peace Corps, warned in a report to Congress of "a marked increase in violent acts against volunteers worldwide."
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