A very disturbing report in the Army Times this week details 30,000 children abused — including 118 killed by “beatings, torture and starvation” — in Army families over a decade, a 40 percent increase in cases from 2009 to 2012.

“The Army put a lot of focus on domestic violence because there’s been a lot of political pressure,” said Dr. Rene Robichaux, social work programs manager at Army Medical Command. “There hasn’t been a concurrent interest in child abuse.”

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Campbell said he was not aware of the extent of the epidemic. . . .

Of the 29,552 cases of child abuse and neglect in active-duty Army families from 2003 through 2012, according to Army Central Registry data, 15,557 were committed by soldiers, the others by civilians — mostly spouses. . . .

The Army’s child abuse and neglect epidemic is tragic and rapidly getting worse: Last year’s 3,698 reported cases of abuse and neglect represented a 40 percent increase over the 2,626 in 2009.

The causes are not fully explained or understood anywhere, but the spike in abuse and neglect cases dovetails with the grind of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a policy of allowing people with criminal backgrounds into the ranks.

While the rate of abuse within Army families is significantly lower than the population as a whole — 4.5 per 1,000 vs. 27.4 — “the number of Army cases has spiked 28 percent between 2008 and 2011, while the number of civilian cases has increased by 1.1 percent,” Army Times reported.

Graphic from Army Times story on epidemic of child abuse in Army families.