What do Americans hope for when they send their young men and women to serve their country? Some will say justice and duty; others will hope that their loved ones gain respect and responsibility. But the overall idea that Americans want for their sailors and soldiers, whether overseas or on land, is safety. Safety from harm and from unnecessary evils that may be present in whatever zone they may be entering. What if that idea of safety was a farce? What if the very people we have sent to protect us, are becoming victims, help just a fleeting hope? America’s military is experiencing this epidemic currently. The epidemic is known as sexual assault. The commanding officers in charge of protecting our armed forces from undue violence can, in fact, be the ones hindering their safety and justice based on a myriad of discriminations. Sexual assault cases need to be taken away from military authorities and put into the hands of the civilian justice system to avoid unfair trials and mistreatment of victims. In turn, the results will offer victims and perpetrators fair trials and a chance to be heard.
Currently, the armed forces have a mechanism in place for victims to turn to once a sexual assault has occurred. This system is known as restricted and unrestricted reporting. Restricted reports are, in a way, completely confidential. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is not notified which means that an investigation regarding the sexual assault would not be initiated. The command will be notified, however, no identifying information is given out regarding the victim or perpetrator. The victim has options regarding who they can disclose information to in regards to making a restricted report. They can report their trauma to a De...
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...uddy is a stand-up sailor or soldier, it is possible that the report the command will receive after a sexual assault will favor that individual.
The armed forces have a lot of work to do, in general, with preventing sexual assault and acting on it in the correct way. But testimonies of brutally raped individuals show that the military’s leaders are the ones who are doing the real hurting. These commanding officers are preventing victims from getting the justice and help they deserve by either favoring the perpetrator or punishing the victim using law. In the civilian judicial courts, rapists can get years in prison while military members may only get reduced in rank. Military sexual assault cases need to be taken out of the military’s hands and put into the civilian courts where victims can get the satisfaction they deserve by putting their attackers behind bars.
Antwone serves as a Petty Officer in the United States Navy. He is single and heterosexual, with no children. Antwone was referred to the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet Medical Center for psychiatric evaluation, after pleading guilty to assault on a superior, non-commissioned officer. As a result of his physical aggression, he was demoted from ships serviceman Petty Officer, third class, to ships serviceman Seaman. Antwone has a history of physical aggression and poor impulse control. Antwone was referred for three sessions of psychiatry service for assessment of physical aggression, anger management, and supportive treatment. At the end of treatment, a recommendation by Dr. Davenport will be submitted to Antwone’s commanding officer, for the purpose of determining reinstatement to active duty. Antwone sees no need for evaluation and states that the cause of physical assault was a result of racial remarks by the victim. Antwone’s attitude towards fighting is stated in his words, “It’s the only way some people learn.”
In 1996, Captain Derrick Robinson, Sergeant Delmar Simpson, and Sergeant Nathanael Beech were arraigned for their suspected involvement in one of the biggest sex scandals the United States Military had seen. According to CNN, between these three men, charges of rape and adultery were pending in a huge case of sexual misconduct against female soldiers at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland (CNN, 2996). Following this incident, the United States Military took it upon themselves to open a telephone hotline to encourage the reporting of similar harsh crimes. Furthermore, the spike in reporting influenced extensive research to examine the prevalence of rape against women soldiers in the U.S. Military (Titunik, 2000). This paper will explore the dynamics of rape against women soldiers in the military and the research done on its prevalence.
Military records show over 20 percent of female veterans have been sexually assaulted (Ziering and Dick The Invisible War). As well as being assaulted, these women are then told no further action will be taken. 33 percent of military women do not report their sexual assault because the person to report to was a friend of the rapist (Ziering and Dick The Invisible War). Those who do come forward are punished for making such allegations. As the film continues, it begins to show overwhelming evidence of lack of punishment for the offenders....
After reporting a rape, female service members are often ostracized by the individuals in their chain of command. This happened to Petty Officer (PO) Blumer even before her attack became public knowledge. She was drugged and raped after going out for drinks in 2010 (Erdely). PO Blumer was pulled over for driving without lights on and arrested for driving under the influence. After the master-at-arms picked her up at the jail, despite the fact that she told him that she needed to go to the hospital, he took her to the Judge Advocate General's offices (Erdely). Her Chain-of-command was waiting to punish her for a DUI (Erdely). She wrote her statement on what she thought had happened and how she needed urgent medical care (Erdely). She was told that she would be taken to the hospital, but only for a toxicology report, to see if there actually were date-rape drugs in her system (Erdely). "Whether you get a rape kit is up to you," the JAG told Blumer (Erdely). She was shaken by the Jag’s question later on: "Did you inflict your injuries yourself” (Erdely). The word around the command was that she had made up a rape to get out of a DUI. “"Literally, the day she went back to work, we heard about it here," says former Petty Officer 3rd Class Jennifer Kinnaird – Estrada, a linguist stationed at Blumer's previous command in San Antonio. "They were like, 'She's such a ho here, was she like that there?...
... The General Accounting Office concluded in a hearing on May 8th 1999 that combat inclusion is the greatest impediment to women attaining higher military rank. Until qualified women are given access to assignments that are central to the militaries mission, they will be marginalized. Sexual harassment is a huge problem
In the surveys they have referenced in the article, it displays military sexual trauma increases among women during and after military deployment of unwanted sexual contact in recent years. The authors have recruited and conducted of twenty-two US servicewomen telephone interviews from May 2011 to January 2012 to participate a qualitative study with or without their MST experiences. They asked the participants questions regarding about MST during deployment and other factors which are disturbing their reporting and accessing to services against the perpetrators. The issues of sexism, high stress levels, and failed military leadership contributing factors which put these servicewomen in jeopardy of MST. Some of the interview women said that servicewomen do not report MST due to lack of support from peers, unreliable confidentiality, stigma, and other barriers. The interviewees feel more comfortable opening to medical care services after deployment in the United States that grips with sexual assault cases than throughout deployment around the world. The participants have suggested to improving the MST services: by increasing awareness, prosecution, investigation, cultural shift, and independence service providers. The interviewees recognized that Military se...
In September 2011, the United States lifted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT), which restricted gay, lesbian, and bisexuals from openly serving in the military. This was the first time in American history in which people of every sexual orientation could serve openly (“11 Facts About,” n.d.). This was a momentous occasion for some and not so much for others. For those military members that had served in secret and those members that were firmly against gays and lesbians, this repeal had different meaning. Both groups contained members that have served in the military for years and were products of the Former President Bill Clinton’s 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For many soldiers of this era, communication issues arose due to a pre-existing mentality, learned rules and regulations in services reinforced for two decades and the general cultural within combat related fields.
In Kirby Dick’s influential documentary “The Invisible War,” filmmaker Kirby Dick uses pathos, ethos and logos to gain information and supplementary details to make his point that there is an epidemic of rape in throughout the DOD (Department of Defense) and the fact that military sexual trauma (MST) in the United States military goes unheard, mostly unpunished and needs to be addressed at a higher level.
According to Kathleen Hirsch, the author of “Fraternities of Fear: Gang Rape, Male Bonding, and the Silencing of Women” 1 in every 4 women attending college will be the victim of sexual assault at some point during her academic career. Or in another study reported in the “The sexual Victimization of College Women” there are 35.3 incidents of sexual assault in a group of 1,000 women in a time span of 6.91 months (Statistics). Obviously sexual assault is a huge problem that should be taken very seriously. Some colleges have wonderful programs put in place that provides great services to help those students who have been have been sexually assaulted and programs that help education and prevent sexual assault.
Victim issues gradually moved back into the mainstream of the justice system and led to the creation of a new system Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH). Within this program, sexual harassment and sexual assault were viewed in the same form, but today we know they are indeed two separate entities. This training was conducted annually to bring awareness; however, it was still in the reactive stage. On September 11, 2001, the US military has been on high alert with their main focus on the War on Terrorism losing sight this program due to heavy deployment. Approximately 1.64 million US troops have deployed for either Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan or Operation Iraq Freedom (OIF) to Iraq. Sexual assault and sexual harassment increase dramatically during this period. According to Miller (2014), rape during conflict displays how widespread rape and pillaging has remained a strong driving force in warfare because of invisibility. Miller (2014) state another interesting statement that I do not necessarily agree with but it possess some amount of truth. He stated “rape in wartime identifies women paramilitary insurgents and revolutionaries who were raped or sexually assaulted prior to execution because their service in combat usurped patriarchal hierarchy and social order” (p.
The US Military has been one of the most powerful and respected fighting forces in the world; it is also a hotbed for sexual assault. Each year, thousands of men and women take an oath to serve and protect their country and each thousands of military service members are sexually assaulted. “Earlier this week, Pentagon officials released a new report which estimated more than 70 sexual assaults occur in the military each day. ”(Shane III) Fear of retaliation, both personal and professional, and humiliation stop many service members from reporting their sexual assaults. Those few that make the bold choice to report incidents of sexual assault often finds themselves disappointed by the outcome; assaults that do get reported have an incredibly low rate of conviction of the offender.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, "when crimes are not reported to the police, victims may not be able to obtain necessary services to cope with the victimization, and offenders may go unpunished." The U.S. Department of Justice Office states that, in order for victims to obtain the necessary services they need, they have to disclose the incident and seek help. Methods My first source, Why Sexual Assault Victims Delay Presenting at Hospitals, was constructed from sexual assault cases presented at the hospital from January 2005 to December 2008; those records were collected from the sexual assault service center. There were 534 records collected and used during the study, 466 were females, and 68 were men.
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the issue of rape and sexual assault in the military. The number of attacks for rape and sexual assault in the military are at an all-time high. Women have recently been allowed to fight on the front line. While this may be a huge achievement for women-kind, for this woman, it is a very scary thought. I am a junior at Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences; a school geared towards students wishing to enter the medical field. I may be forced to join the military one day if a war breaks out and women are needed to protect the country. I would be happy to serve my country if I did not have to be scared of my fellow soldiers. Rape and sexual assault are major issues in the military and have been for many years without much effort to decrease the attacks. I am suggesting that unless the rape and sexual assault issue is fixed, the amount of people joining the military, specifically the women, will decrease greatly.
Sexual assault is an offense that plagues many U.S. citizens. Although some studies show that rape is on the decline, other studies report that the phenomena actually occuring is that less rape victims are reporting the crime. In fact, approximately 68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police according to the U.S. Department of Justice in a National Crime Victimization Survey from 2008-2012. It is common knowledge that rape victims are usually severely traumatized after the event, which leaves them susceptible to various emotions such as shame, anxiety, numbness, fear, denial, and guilt. Because of this, many rape victims decide to repress their experience and let it go unheard. However, not only does this prevent them from healing emotionally,
In February, a nation mourned as Officer Ashley Guindon was laid to rest, having been killed on her very first day as a Virginia police officer while responding to a domestic abuse call. The wife, Crystal Hamilton, armed with a restraining order also killed. Two other officers hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The shooter an active duty Army Staff Sergeant assigned to the Pentagon (Bacon, 2016). We hear Pentagon and wonder how is this possible? Unfortunately, service related domestic abuse is very real. Yet it’s magnitude is not truly known; not even by the Pentagon (Bannerman, 2014, pg. 3). Some debate that the numbers are decreasing and are less than in civilian populations. What isn’t debatable is that despite over 116 policy changes since the year 2000 (Hickman, 2003, pg.1) lives are still lost. Per Bannerman, “There have been days when there are more military family members killed by their veteran on the home front than troops killed in action on the war front.” (2014, pg.