My wife and I have worked for our men and women serving in the Navy since 1985, so I was filled with disgust after hearing the Bob Edwards Sirius XM radio show “An ‘Occupational Hazard’: Rape in the Military”. The gist of the three day series is that there is a higher proportion of sexual assaults in the military than is society and it is very prevalent at the military academies. Also that justice is not being done for the victims and the predators are being protected. It struck at the core of what Judy and I have worked for, so I had to investigate and sadly I believe it is true.
When we were considering colleges for Julie, there were a lot of positives about military service that I thought Julie should consider. The occupational hazard of being shot in combat was a nonstarter for mom Judy. However I felt that the risk of taking a bullet for our country is what Judy and I have spent 27 years working to minimize and we should account that into the decision. A far as safety at a military academy, I knew there would be hazing which from my fraternity experience was wet, dirty, late night uncomfortable, and mostly stupid stuff but rarely dangerous. However we didn’t consider the risk of sexual assault, to us it had to be better than other large colleges. We work with a lot of military officers and enlisted and they watch their conduct as if everyone is watching; which they are. Our experience has been missteps are corrected swiftly and abuses are career ending. Whenever serious abuses happen anywhere in the executive branch, we all get continuous yearly training because any abuse is a reason to lose your eligibility for security clearance. In our minds, inside the military was much safer from sexual assaults than outside the military. I am sickened to say the numbers don’t agree with that premise.
The source documents I used were: Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military, the most recent report released April 2012, the Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies, the most recent report released December 2011 and Criminal Victimization bulletin from the Us Department of justice released October 2010. The very offensive “Occupational Hazard” term came from a class action civil suit filed in U.S. District Court Cioca v. Rumsfeld. I haven’t found the transcript online but found some revealing reporting from ArmyTimes.com.
From an article posted 13 Dec 2011 in the ArmyTimes.com:
A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit filed by 28 current and former service members for sexual assaults they say happened while they were in uniform serving under defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.
U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady ordered dismissal of the case, filed against the two former secretaries, Dec. 9. He called the sexual assault allegations “troubling,” but said previous cases and Supreme Court decisions have advised against judicial involvement in cases of military discipline.
In arguing for dismissal, Justice Department attorneys cited Supreme Court cases decided in favor of the government that involved service members who sued senior officials for personal damages or filed suit against the government seeking damages for
service-related injuries as reasons to dismiss.
It is clear that the executive branch, Justice Department, was arguing that sexual assault is equivalent to a service-related injury so the marker of Occupational Hazard is a correct attribution. However, the Judiciary branch is ruling is based on cases involving military discipline which is different. The US Judiciary is saying it is troubling that the military judiciary considers sexual assault a occupational hazard but by law the US judiciary has no authority of military judiciary in the case of military discipline.
I have never been a witness of a sexual assault but I know people who have told me they have been victims and have not reported it. How prevalent or rare is it? The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice and publishes a annual report on Criminal Victimization which estimates rates of crimes both reported and those not reported to police, the latest report I could find was published in October 2010 and covers 2009. It reports that the rate of sexual assault in 2008 was 8 in 10,000 and in 2009 was 5 in 10,000. One is too many; however these numbers are consistent with my life long experience of never seeing any but knowing a few that have been. It is too high but rare.
If it is rare in society how rare is it in our military? The Office of the Secretary of Defense reports an active duty military strength of 1,435,450 on March 31, 2012. Using 6.5 per 10,000, the average of two years estimated in society as a whole, an expected 933 reported and unreported sexual assaults would take place each year. Even this number is disgusting; however the Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military for fiscal year 2011 has the reported number of sexual assaults to be 3,492 and estimates that this represents only 14% of the total which would be 24,943. That is about 1.7% of the active military. To be fair the reports does have some caveats about comparing these numbers to non military numbers; however there definition of reported Sexual Assault is “rape, aggravated sexual assault, nonconsensual sodomy, aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact, wrongful sexual contact, and attempts to commit these offenses”. This means that if you have a thirty year military career it is likely you know several victims or been a victim or deserve death because you are a predator.
Is it less rare at our Military Academies? Let’s hope so since we send best and brightest High school students there with a congressional recommendation. The report of the Air force academy class of 2015 has: 17% were either High School Class President or Vice-President, 11% were either Valedictorian or Salutatorian, 26% were in Boy/Girl Scouts, 12% were Eagle Scout/Gold Award, and 82% Athletic Letter Award. The total enrolment for the class of 2015 for Army, Air Force and Navy academies is Air force academy is 3627, which means a 4 year student population of about 14,508 plus maybe 1,000 in administration. Again using 6.5 per 10,000 for society as a whole we would expect maybe 10 sexual assaults per year. The report on sexual harassment and violence at the military service academies shows the reported average of about 40 per year from 2005 through 2011. If the reported is only 14% of the total that means the military academies have 285 sexual assaults per year in a population of about 15,500. This is 1.8% of the academy population which higher than the sexual assaults in the active military as a whole.
I was wrong in thinking the military would be a good choice for my daughter. I would discourage any other father who is thinking of sending their daughter too. Since the sexual assaults include assaults against boys too I wouldn’t want to send a son either. However some will go and become victims. What about the predators, why are there so many? Are they attracted to the military? Is there something inherent in military service that makes predators? If the military thinks sexual assault is an occupational hazard we are creating a haven for sexual predators. Dangerous Disturbing and Disgusting!
