Facts summarized from a Bill Moyers report on American women who are raped by other male soldiers. This came from a report commissioned in the 1990s, but the anecdotal accounts presented in this piece suggest that rape levels are on a par with these levels. The story showed one case of a woman who was raped, complained about it, filed a complaint, and not only was the soldier not disciplined or court-martialed, she was made the butt of jokes in her platoon and ended up being raped again by her superior officer. The whole story infuriates me; we are paying 40% of our taxes to pay for our soldiers to rape each other (and letting them get away with it)!
Military sexual trauma
Harassment, assault, rape and other violence.
Military sexual assault
Any unwanted physical contact of a sexual nature.
Military Rape
Unwanted vaginal, anal or oral intercourse or penetration using fingers or other objects, using force or the threat of force.
Sexual Trauma in the Military Reserves and the National Guard
- 27% of men have experienced military sexual trauma
- 60% of women have experienced military sexual trauma
- 3.5% of men have experienced military sexual assault
- 23% of women have experienced military sexual assault
- 11% of women have experienced rape
- 1.2% of men have experienced rape
- Service branch with the highest percentage of women reporting sexual trauma: Marine Corps
- 20% of women seeking care VA facilities have experienced sexual trauma
- 1% of men seeking care for sexual trauma at VA facilities have experienced sexual trauma
- 8.3 percentage of women report lifetime PTSD related to MST
- More than half of the incidents took place at a military work site and during duty hours
- The majority of the offenders in these cases were military personnel
- Factors that increase risk of sexual assault for active duty females include presence of officers who condone or allow sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention
A 2007 AP story provides more updated statistics:
Reports of sexual assaults in the military increased by about 24 percent last year and more than twice as many offenders were punished.
There were nearly 3,000 sexual assault reports filed in 2006, compared with almost 2,400 the previous year, a Pentagon report said Wednesday. Action was taken against 780 people, from courts-martial and discharges to other administrative remedies.
(Note from Robert: The statistics mentioned in this article are confusing, due partly to reporting inconsistencies. Later in the article, they mention that out of 756 reports, charges were filed in only 86 cases. Call it sloppy journalism, or just contradictory data)
Dawn Fratangelo provides another anecdotal report.
I was reminded of Chris Hedges’ book, War is a Force that gives us Meaning, a book that treats war as a kind of sexual addiction.
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