It's so sad to say that this doesn't surprise me in the least.

There is one consolation: A woman I went to school with graduated with her PhD and joined the Navy for the sole purpose of counseling veterans who experienced sexual assault and PTSD as a result of their service.

So while the military does a suck job in protecting its women from sexual assault while in service, there are a few resources within the military that women can seek out for help.

Yeah, I'm not that surprised either. And just think of all the Iraqi women who have probably been raped by US soldiers...

I wish stuff like this was more widely publicized though, especially for all those folks in the midwest convinced that the soldiers are the "good guys" and liberals are evil...

The military really is working very hard to combat this, and is honestly frustrated that progress has been slow. I think before there was a lack of concern and some denial on the issue but I'm guessing because of the Congressional oversight in the past 5 years or so, the attitude appears to have changed and the fact that there is a problem is acknowledged and efforts to stop it are genuine. We are consistently briefed on what it is, reporting channels, and given 24-hour phone numbers.

The main problems are:

a) People don't want to report anything, be it simple rulebreaking, Law of War violations, gender harassment, sexual harassment, or sexual assault, because there are pretty high social penalties for "betraying the group" (I have lived this in a gender harassment case and it sucked)--this is of course among peers. Chain of command is obligated to report and generally does.

b) On the prosecution angle, the UCMJ used to only have two elements in its rape statute: by force and without consent. That meant that everytime a prosecutor tried to convict someone who had gotten the girl drunk, drugged, or had raped her by fraud, he/she had to prove what was done constituted "force." The UCMJ article was recently overhauled to include a lot of situations, see here:

http://www.sapr.mil/contents/News/NewLaw.pdf

Once a case actually makes it up to the installation level and a hearing is held to see if charges are preferred, procedure is generally followed to the letter, and if a court martial is held, the prosecuting JAG will do his/her damndest to get a conviction. Getting to that spot can be really hard, though, especially because of the unit scrutiny that comes with being an accuser in such a case.

Unsurprisingly, all the MRAs are out in full force on Digg, saying "what do you expect from a war zone" and "this is why women shouldn't be in the military" and "THEY WERE ALL LYING! I'VE SEEN IT HAPPEN, THEY LIE!"

Yep. 41% of females in the military are just lying, and out for revenge. You got 'em pegged, you sure did. Assholes.

it's terribly sad. And the awful thing is that people will blame it on the war, and blame it on stress, and blame it on female and male soldiers serving together, when the real blame lies with our society, where rape is normalized. Our society says that all a man needs is an excuse: "I was drunk" or "she asked for it" or "she owed me" or "I was stressed" or "war is hell." Well, it's not good enough. The only "excuse" for rape is insanity, if that's an excuse. Whatever happened to our military having values? Wasn't it about America, Mom, apple pie, and comradeship? You can't tell me that it's impossible for men and women to serve together, it happens in other countries. I don't know how this can be fixed right now in the armed forces, but if we don't want it to be a continuing problem, we need to fix the rape culture in America. (Obviously, we need to do that anyway.)

Shit like this is horrifying, but I'm hardly surprised. Stateside, rape isn't as uncommon as we think. In a situation in which peer pressure is extremely high and dudely backthumping is the normal way of life, can we honestly claim surprise over statistics like these?

The army doesn't respect women, we already know this. The ban on women servicing combat missions goes to show you how high of an opinion the armed forces as a collective hold for women. Our armed forces operate outside American law and international laws. They are immune to everything but superior orders, who are usually more interested in group cohesion than the rights of an occupied peoples or their soldiers.

Stateside, women are belittled for rape all the time. They are made to feel responsible for daring to go where only men should, namely, freely about society as if they thought they were human or something. I imagine this feeling is even stronger in the military, where the thick scent of fear and testosterone turn our young men into puppy slinging killing machines with little conscience outside of the group-think. With aggression valued as the ultimate measure of manliness in the military, is it any wonder that some of our armed forces cross the line into forcing women to service them against their will?

After all, when you cross that line between not killing people and accepting mindless slaughter as a fact of life, rape doesn't seem like quite the crime anymore.

Unsurprisingly, all the MRAs are out in full force on Digg, saying "what do you expect from a war zone"

I don't get this. Do the "men's rights" they're advocating include "the right to rape without those bitches whining to the press about it"?

Betraying the group by reporting?

How about betraying the US and aiding the enemy by raping US soldiers?

That is shocking. Nearly HALF of all the women who go to the clinic have been sexually assaulted?!

I'm so shocked I'm not even upset about it.

Abbey, Thanks for that perspective and info.

The military is just really disgusting.

I think the absence of women in combat zones is a large part of the problem. It's a hell of a lot easier to "other" people when they are kept separate. I've heard that because of the nature of the war in Iraq women are closer to the combat zones than they have ever been, but still they have support roles rather than combat roles.

Maybe the reason men and women are able to serve together in other countries is because they are considered equal from the start. Also, since a lot of those countries require military training for all people of a certain age it is further normalized.

Of course this just brings us back to the point that the military environment of Iraq serves as focused lens of problems that already exist stateside. The dominant culture here loves to emphasize differences between men and women to aid in othering.

It would be interesting to know the conviction rate. In the UK the conviction rate is around 5% of complaints - about 20-30 % actually get to court, and you have to have a pretty robust case to get there. 10% is still higher than 5%....

AnnaSoror - Most likely, but I admit that the term I was looking for was "rape apologists", I was just too foggy in the head to think clearly.

i think the number, 41% report being sexually assaulted is probably much lower than reality but also I wonder how they are defining sexual assault as that can change from report to report. If I had to make a guess as to what percentage were sexually assaulted, based on my 10 years in, I'd put it at about 90% if one were to include groping and verbal harassment. This isnt just a male-female issue though, these issues effect all of us who were in the military and the prevalence of male-male rape/sexual assault/sex based hazing is still being ignored and severely, severely underreported.

I don't really think there are more rapes now than in the past, aside from the wartime effect, its just that it is being reported a lot more now. Changes to the UCMJ, beefing up resources, and making reporting easier has increased the stats and hopefully soon the reported numbers will become as close as possible to matching reality which will make progress much easier.

Finally comments like "The military is just really disgusting." really upset me as any kind of blanket statement like that about a 1.5million member organization is just stupid. Its all bad but even taking into account the problems with underreporting rape within the military crime rates are lower than in the populace as a whole, a whole lot lower if you take the average socioeconomic status of the enlisted member and compare them to their civilian peer group. I'm not justifying it but to say the organization as a whole is disgusting is wrong in my eyes. People often look at reports like these, as they rightly should, and let them inform most of if not their entire opinion about the military, its not that simple. Especially in the era of the all volunteer service, the military as an organization does a lot of good for hundreds of thousands of our citizens. We should hold their feet to the fire on issues like these but rape issues do not encapsulate the entire military experience.

This is actually something that I've been thinking about for a little while. I'm currently a vet student, and I'm considering joining the Army or Air Force as a medical officer. I decided to take up self-defense training, even though I probably won't be doing anything but meat inspection, so that I can at least try to put up a good fight if that happens to me. I've been thinking lateley that I'm being paranoid, but, 1 in 3 reported? Now I'm thinking that I have to sign up for a class ASAP.

This really does not surprise me at all, but I wish more people knew about this. I feel that soldiers are made out to be such heroes and this is not behavior that should be hidden. If this is what is going on, everyone should be aware of it.

soldiers can be heroes mindy but not everyone of them is and youre right, the word heroes is tossed around far too much though i must say its not usually the soldiers themselves doing it.

soldiers (sailors marines airmen and coastguardmen cant forget them) are a reflection of the society we live in and are made up of both good and bad. they are put in extreme situations that some respond to well and some well...some end up being the perpetrators behind the stats we see here. its a tough thing though and probably the subbject ive discussed most in my life in relation to feminism, how to get the results you need, have a culture behind it thats works but also is not harmful to those in the service or those who come into contact with them.

As far as the reason why some military members dont like reporting these things, or any other kind of crime, well this doesnt justify it but unit cohesion, battle buddies, shipmates and all the rest are a major part of the military. I did report a few EO violations when I was in but if you work with a soldier and put your life in his/her hands every day and he/she has saved your life before, your loyalty to him and your own want of self-preservation can trump your conscience at times. Its the same phenomenon that gets a lot of soldiers to reenlist and go back to that hellhole, it isnt patriotism or any of that crap, its wanting to save the life of the soldier next to you. Bullshit right-wing politicos like to spin it as high morale but that couldnt be farther from the truth. Why this feeling of wanting to protect your fellow soldiers, put your life in his/hers and vice versa doesnt extend fully to reporting crimes you may witness I'll never fully understand though I have come to grips with a little of it.

Yes, part of this has to do with being failable humans put in extreme environments, dananddanica.

But also, I think it has to do with culture beyond just the "exteme environments" thing. People who join the military are more likely to be from politically conservative areas, or families where guys are macho... this feeds into the whole military culture

During WW2, 141 soldiers, sailors and Marines were sentenced to death and hanged for rape and murder. I'm starting to think that bringing back the noose might stop some of this.

I know a woman who was raped in the military.. She reported it immediately, but they did absolutely NOTHING to the rapist. No punishment whatsoever. Not even a slap on the wrist.

Sadly enough this doesn't surprise me at all... Almost every person I've met that has been or wants to be in the military does not do it to "protect our country". They've almost always said something along the lines of "I want to legally kill people". I'm not against the military, I'm against most of the people IN the military.. Because from my experience, most of them are sick people, and none of them ever get punished for their sick actions.

It's this kind of crap that makes me ASHAMED to me an American.

Hello,

I came upon this site from a link that I viewed online and would like to post a comment for what its worth. First of all I have served in the US Navy for nearly two decades. I am a senior NCO (Senior Chief Petty Officer). Part of my job is to ensure young women serving in the military would receive justice in the event they were sexually assaulted. I do not choose to refute the statistics that headline this blog, because I do not know if they are indeed accurate. But I can assure you that bonfide assaults at my command certainly would not be tolerated. In fact I have only aware of three reports of sexual assault in my entire career two being a false accusations the other resulting in criminal charges and jail time for the offender. I can assure each of you that if you were to ever visit my warship or shore installation you would be more safe than virtually anywhere on the face of this earth! I can also further ensure that I am far from the only senior enlisted man (and many senior enlisted women) that would allow the things described in your article to take place, and they most certainly are not commonplace. Any argument to the contrary simply is not true. I have not served on the ground in Iraq and Afganistan and there would be little doubt that women serving there probably will experience a higher rate of sexual assault, but to suggest that nothing happens to rapists in the military is false. I did not join the military to kill people legally, I joined to serve all of you and to defend my homeland and keep the peace throughout the world, as flawed as our endeavors sometimes seem to be. Thank you for you time and consideration for my point of view.