WASHINGTON • Despite new rules addressing sexual assault among the children of U.S. service members, the federal government failed to fix a flaw that on many military bases has let alleged juvenile abusers escape accountability or treatment.

New records obtained by The Associated Press underscore how few child-on-child sex assault reports pursued by military investigators are prosecuted. That problem is most serious on U.S. installations overseas, where at least 47,000 children are enrolled in Pentagon-run schools.

Children and teens suspected of sex crimes on U.S. bases overseas often faced no legal consequences, such as court-ordered rehabilitation, records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show. Those held to account were generally either kicked off base into the civilian world or received modest punishments, the records show.

One, for example, was told to write a 1,000-word essay about “the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching.” Another avoided punishment by enlisting in the Army. A third, who was put on curfew after two girls accused him of sexual assault, was investigated a year later in an alleged rape, a case that also went unprosecuted.

Congress ordered internal investigations and mandated Pentagon reforms this summer after an AP investigation revealed the problems of juvenile sexual assault on U.S. military bases, including the failure of the Defense and Justice Departments to help either victims or offenders. One proposed reform would have required federal prosecutors with jurisdiction over civilians on base to transfer child-on-child sex assault cases to counterparts in state juvenile justice systems, which have resources dedicated to rehabilitation. But that requirement did not survive final negotiations over the legislation.

Federal prosecutors, under pressure to win big convictions, don’t take juvenile sex assault cases because they can be hard to prove and require extra paperwork, former prosecutors say. Military officials privately bemoan what they see as the Justice Department’s indifference while publicly noting their own limitations.

“We could bar that kid from being on post, or we could move the family from the post, but beyond that, the authorities really reside outside the military,” Army Secretary Mark Esper told senators at a May hearing.

Representatives of the Defense and Justice Departments have been meeting for several months to resolve problems that AP’s investigation highlighted. Officials are “considering a range of options to ensure that these types of cases are effectively addressed,” Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said. The idea is to use state courts when possible, he added.

That would not apply to U.S. installations in Europe and Asia, where U.S. officials can be reluctant to involve prosecutors from host nations. AP’s review of investigative reports in which military officials documented prosecution decisions found that about one in 10 on overseas Army, Navy or Marines bases were accepted from 2007 into 2017. Weak cases don’t explain the lack of prosecutions. Army criminal investigators concluded that nearly 90 percent of juvenile sex crime allegations on bases were credible, records show.

The Pentagon in Washington. New rules addressing sexual assault among the children of U.S. service members fail to fix a flaw that on many military bases has let alleged juvenile abusers escape accountability.

the associated pres file