Native Hawaiian women and girls experience disproportionate levels of violence, inequities that have long been insufficiently addressed, new research shows.

In particular, sexual exploitation remains a serious issue, with 43% of sex trafficking cases involving Native Hawaiian girls trafficked in Waikīkī, O‘ahu, according to a report from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, a statewide government agency.

A law enforcement operation targeting child sex trafficking showed that 38% of people arrested through the effort and accused of soliciting sex online from a 13-year-old were military personnel.

“We have over two dozen arrests out of just a handful of operations of active-duty military personnel. … What that also indicates to me is that the predation that involves soldiers preying on children appears to be widespread,” said Khara Jabola-Carolus, a co-chair of the Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls Task Force, which released the report. “That should be shocking and alarming and cause for urgency.”

researchers compiled and examined data about a number of issues across state and community agencies in Hawaii, including domestic and sexual violence and exploitation. It found that the average profile of a missing child report processed through the state’s Missing Child Center Hawaii is 15 years old, female, Native Hawaiian and missing from O‘ahu. In the past two years, Native Hawaiians made up 84% of the 37 cases publicly reported through missing children’s center.

In looking at other inequities, the report found that more than one-third of adults who experience physical violence by intimate partners in Hawaii are Indigenous, according to 2013 statistics. And 16.5% of all high school students in the state who reported having been sexually abused by anyone in the last 12 months were Native Hawaiian females, higher than among females of any other racial group, the report said, citing 2019 data.

Jabola-Carolus said many in the Indigenous community have long called for the armed forces to leave the islands. Research has shown the negative impact military presence in the area has had on Indigenous communities, from health to economics.

“It’s time for the Department of Defense and Congress to revisit Base Realignment and Closure in Hawaii,” Jabola-Carolus said.

Inequities for Native women and girls are also intertwined with the failures of those with legislative power to recognize such Native Hawaiian issues, the report said. The Violence Against Women Act increased funding for domestic violence and sexual assault services, but services allocated to specifically help Native Hawaiian survivors of gender-based violence were inadvertently excluded from the funding. Legislation introduced by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, last month would rectify that.

data continues to be limited, researchers wrote. And to comprehend the full scale and severity of the violence against Native Hawaiian women and girls, better data collection that centers on “key experts” — including survivors with lived experience, social workers and therapists — is needed, the report said.