Essay On Rape Is An Occupational Hazard

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An occupational hazard is a risk accepted as a consequence of a particular occupation. It could be sore hands if one is typing all day or a sore back if a person is doing heavy lifting. Rape is forcing sex upon someone who does not or cannot consent. It’s terrible, it’s scarring, it’s traumatizing. It should not be considered an occupational hazard. Yet one profession claims just that. “Rape is an occupational hazard.” What job would ever say this? Brush it off as a common occurrence? The United States Military. In the documentary The Invisible War, a military personnel claims that it is an occupational hazard. Rape and sexual assault have always been a problem in our nation’s military and yet nothing ever seems to get better. Women make up about 15% of the military yet they are 47% of the victims of rape and sexual assault in the military. Statistics reveal how large this problem is. According to The Invisible War 80% of victims do not report their rape. Of that, 25% of servicewomen did not report their rape because the person to report to was the rapist and 35% did not report their rape because the person to report to was a friend of the rapist. Every …show more content…

A soldier is separated from their loved ones, off in a world much different from their own. People join the military because they love their country and want to give back. The military is looked at with respect. America’s best and bravest give up their lives yet are not even guaranteed personal safety. The Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) and the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response Prevention (SHARP) are both good ideas in theory but have done a horrible job at actually preventing anything. Their guide videos are ignored and made fun of according to The Invisible War. The videos promote the buddy system and that a person is to be blamed if they go out without a buddy and they are assaulted. Victim blaming is not the

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