In 2010, a reported 19 thousand service members were sexually assaulted or raped. Is the US government doing enough to eliminate sexual related violence in the armed services? We ask one ex-Navy woman what is being done for victims trying to soothe their emotional wounds and scars.
The numbers say it all; an anonymous survey of Navy recruits about theirsexual assault history made an unnerving discovery, about 39 percent of women had been victims of sexual assault while 13 percent of men admitted to initiating a sexual assault of some kind. The 2008 survey was split between named and anonymous participants but researchers believe the figureswere more accurate when Navy personnel were unidentified.
What?s worse is that a different study, which focused on rape, found even more shocking results. 120 men raped women who were known to them, a total of 483 times, 439 of those attacks were by committed by more than half of those same men. The study clearly demonstrates that serial rapists do exist more often than not. It also proves that a man who has assaulted once, may well do so again.
The survey is not the only evidence of criminals joining the military and then repeatedly committing the same violent acts.
It may be hard to understand the reasons that some men continually behave that way but it?s harder still to comprehend the tackling strategies being employed by the Department of Defense (DoD). Take for instance their RAINN alliance (an acronym for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). The organization insists on anonymity, supporting victims, and being available worldwide. One ex-Navy member is far from convinced though that this is enough.
?They keep rehashing the same old policies: we?re going to have more training, we?re going to have more oversight and then we?re going to have more training again, that?s pretty much what they do. And then they say that they?re going to punish people and they punish one or two people, they give a whole bunch of other people a slap on the wrist and then we?re back to business as usual,? explained Jenny McClendon, who was subjected to crude abuse and sexually assaulted while serving in the Navy.
It doesn?t seem to matter how many new systems or networks are created, the DoD looks to be caught between a rock and a hard place. New regulations have been introduced to the chain of command countless times, but apparently to no avail. The DoD, along with several military units, has now been sued twice, once in 2011 and again this year, over allegations of sexual assault. In both cases the suits were brought, not by individual women, but by several.
?Every new policy, I mean the most recent policy proposed by the Department of Defense was that we?re going to have sexual harassment training before you?ve been in the military for 14 days. Okay, there?re two problems with that. First of all if you need to be told not to harass people, you need to be somewhere other than the US Military. The second problem with that is it shouldn?t matter how soon you get the training, you just shouldn?t do it,? said McClendon to the Voice of Russia.
McClendon is talking about the SHARP (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention) Program, which aims to educate rookie soldiers on the types of behavior that will not be tolerated in the US Military. Among the goals they list is to encourage victims to report, which is often perceived as a ?catch-22? situation. Reporting can be taken at face value or simply ?lost in translation?. Even though both genders speak the same language, the prime objectives may be different; the victim wants to report while the higher ranks may simply want to cover it up. Additionally, if the victim doesn?t immediately file a complaint, the temptation to report it might disintegrate under intimidation from their attacker.
?To be honest, I would also say that when victims report they usually wait quite a while to report because they want to make sure. I can?t imagine I mean most of the cases, I wanted to make sure that I never misunderstood anything, and that?s why it got as far as it went,? said McClendon and continued.. ?The reason that I didn?t report him the very first time that he ever did anything stupid is that I wanted to make sure that he wasn?t just an idiot.?
After-effects for victims include symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder even if they have not seen combat. One example shows that certain military personnel don?t know how to treat their soldiers; Katie told her story on the ?Protect Our Defenders? web-site and claims her sergeant told her? ?If you can?t handle getting raped private, then you don?t belong in the military?. Healing and counseling measures are vital for serving and former soldiers to restore their emotional health.
The US Armed Forces have made significant contributions in time and money to improve the situations for abused soldiers and yet the numbers revealed by the latest reports are ample proof that more assistance and support is needed. The destruction of a person?s self-confidence, replaced with insecurity and paranoia, is a hard process to reverse. But with daily guidance, little by little, people can rebuild their lives out of the fragments left behind from a living nightmare.Source: http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_26/Surviving-the-irreversible-trauma-of-US-Military-Service/
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