Talk:Sexual assault in the United States military

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Incorrect citation on Recent Statistics
The following statement is not supported by the source that it is cited from:
 * 25% of military women have been sexually assaulted, and up to 80% have been sexually harassed.

The source says "As many as a quarter", not flat out 25%. Additionally, the sources cited by that source don't appear to support that number with regard to assault that has happened to all women during their military careers.

This one says that 23% of female users of VA services reported sexual assault. That is not the same as 23% of the entire military.

The summary from the other one also does not appear to support this 25% number. It lists a higher number of 50.9% that experienced sexual assault but says the majority of those assaults happened to soldiers during their childhood, before they were in military service. If someone has full access to this article maybe they can clarify the actual number reported during service.

Based on this I recommend the number be removed until it can be updated with a more direct source, or noted that it needs a citation. At the very least the cited number should be clarified with "as many as".

--67.160.140.168 (talk) 16:16, 7 June 2015 (UTC)

Grammar Correction
In this sentence, "A substantial increase in reported sexual assaults was reported at the 3 U.S. military academies for the school year 2010 to 2011," "3" should be spelled out "three."

--Klink216 (talk) 17:55, 8 September 2016 (UTC)
 * ✅ Fixed.&#42;Treker (talk) 18:00, 8 September 2016 (UTC)

Needs more work
This page could really do with some work; it appears to be a cut-and-paste job. Buckshot06 09:14, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

i agree with buckshot..copy paste job...worthy of junk..Cityvalyu (talk) 20:09, 22 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Agreed...There are SEVERAL huge things left unmentioned - such as Lesbain baiting...Ed-it 01:43, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Understandably, this article could never hope to be fully exhaustive, and would not benefit from becoming an exhaustive list of incidents. Still, as violent crime (both sexual and not) on the part of US soldiers in Okinawa is one of the major elements of controversy surrounding US presence in Okinawa, it would be good to mention it. LordAmeth 15:38, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

I changed a few things in the start of this article, it was falsely claiming that 1 in 5 females and 1 in 15 males in the military reported being raped, the article actually said that only those numbers would report being assault. The number of actual assaults is not at all that high (though obviously it is much too high) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.140.67.144 (talk) 18:35, 1 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Edited the same statement later in the article to reflect this. Those numbers scared the heck out of me. Hystanes (talk) 06:31, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

The acronym "VA" is used throughout the article, but it is never defined. I have no idea what it means. The article should probably be changed to include a definition or a link on the first usage of the term.82.225.162.56 (talk) 15:10, 12 July 2015 (UTC)


 * ✅ VA refers to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. I have linked that in the lead with (VA) in parenthesis. EricSerge (talk) 16:06, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

POV?
"The existence of sexual harassment and assault is an inherent contradiction to the spirit of the Academies that strives to and succeeds in creating strong commitments to honor and service." POV plz? 75.40.225.228 00:20, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
 * A quote from a Department of Defense document. The bulk of the article consist of quotes from their report on sexual harassments at the academies. Fred Bauder 14:16, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I put a POV tag on the article, for this part, "Yet this view ignores the fact that many homosexual and heterosexual women serving in the military also experience confusion concerning sexual identity, femininity, and sexual orientation after an assault. Women may also feel as though their assault was a punishment for being female in a male sphere, for not conforming to gender norms, for not being heteronormative, and other negative experiences from working and living in a traditionally androcentric, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise othering environment."

It was removed by another user in the edit before mine. It might interest regular Wikipedians to know (though I suspect you do already) that feminists have done several "edit-a-thon" of Wikipedia to "write feminist thinking", including offering college credit.
 * Wikipedia is a NPOV space. Please don't edit from an anti-Feminist (or anti-anything) standing. Also remember to sign your posts --Drowninginlimbo (talk) 19:13, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

What about other countries?
This is an interesting topic, but it would be nice to have a comparison between the American situation and that in other countries... FilipeS (talk) 14:13, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Gays in the military
Regarding the policy debate surrounding Don't ask, don't tell, it might be interesting if the article could try to determine how often the phenomenon of gay sexual assault occurs in the U.S. military, especially with regards to senior officers assaulting younger cadets and recruits. Part of this debate on gay sexual assault in recuitment academies in somewhat parallel to the sexual scandals encountered in the seminaries of the Catholic Church, where seminary students were sometimes found to be assaulted by their seminary instructors, and where a pervasive gay culture severely limited the recruitment of heterosexual training candidates. ADM (talk) 06:51, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * A more substantive area regarding gays in the military and sexual assault would be the sexual assault of female personnel under threat of being reported as lesbians and discharged. Several near-rapes of lesbians and women perceived to be lesbians (either to "fix them" or under threat of being reported and discharged) are documented in Randy Shilts's book Conduct Unbecoming. Are You The Cow Of Pain? (talk) 21:56, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Needs More Info
This article mentions the sexual assault of female soldiers over seas in passing. It should be elaborated on. Also, it primarily talks about military academies. There is a huge problem of sexual harassment and assault among enlisted soldiers as well. I would like to contribute. Any thoughts? Kaitlyn confer (talk) 15:18, 23 November 2010 (UTC) Kaitlin, I agree that the topic by right should concentrate on harassment within the ranks, not primarily at the service academies. And if you'd like to contribute to the article, I'm sure it'd be a valuable addition - nothing's holding you back! Georgia Yankee (talk) 17:49, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

al-Jihad article
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/09/2011916112412992221.html

I didn't see anything new and notable here. Is the lamestream just wiki-diving again? Hcobb (talk) 00:36, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

New source
–Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 03:48, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

Kori Cioca
--Librarychattering (talk) 18:07, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Military Denial
When she reported the rape, Ms Cioca said that her Senior Chief was nonchalant about her ordeal, saying that they needed the officer for training duty and that she’d be fine. ‘I still did what I was told and I really thought they were going to do something,’ a tearful Ms Cioca told the talk show host. Ms Cioca was prescribed a host of pills to treat her physical pain, as well as her PTSD. In the film, she explained that other young servicemen had died from taking the physician-prescribed drugs. Since the rape several years ago, the survivor has been on a soft diet of mashed potatoes, Jell-O and other foods that don’t require heavy chewing. 

Advocate for Change
The survivor of a horrific military rape has bravely spoken out about her ordeal and about the daily battle to overcome her trauma. Kori Cioca, who was in the U.S. Coast Guard, was savagely raped by her commanding officer in the barracks. Her attacker dislocated her jaw but he went unpunished for the crime.Ms Cioca said she lived in fear when the officer was around. ‘I was always waiting to have my face spit in or to have him touch me and make a derogatory remark,’ she said. Cioca was horrifically raped by commanding officer in the barracks several years ago. She reported the attack but no action was taken. Said she contemplated suicide but reconsidered when she discovered she was pregnant. She said that she had high hopes of her time at the Coast Guard base in Saginaw, Michigan, saying that her commanding officer seemed ‘very nice’ when she first reported for duty. But things soon turned sour for Ms Cioca, who was the only female recruit on the entire base. She now carries a knife and a crucifix with her at all times – the cross for her prayers and the blade for protection. ‘You always have protection with Jesus, but sometimes you just need a little more,’ she said in ‘The Invisible War.’

Bringing Awareness to Sexual Assault in American Military
Sexual assault in the military has reached epidemic proportions, with one in three women in the armed forces being sexually assaulted, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 military men and women were sexually assaulted by fellow troops in 2010 alone while serving in the U.S. armed forces. At least 20 per cent of servicewomen and one per cent of men - an estimated 500,000 troops - have experienced sexual trauma while serving. In most cases, a rape victim’s only judicial recourse is to report the attack to his or her commander, even if it was the officer who attacked them, and it is the officer’s decision whether or not to investigate and prosecute. 

Media Appearances
She appears the documentary The Invisible War.

She also appeared in an Interview for Democracy Now! in January 2013. 

The former servicewoman appeared with her husband, Rob McDonald, on Katie Couric’s talk show. She told Couric that the officer would invite her to movie nights with other recruits, but would find upon arrival that she was the only one who received an invitation. ‘I’d walk in from training and he’d be sleeping in my bed,’ Ms Cioca said in the documentary, ‘The Invisible War.’ She said that though she tried to report the officer to those in charge, they were all of his drinking buddies. They told her that it was weak to complain just because she did not like him. The officer was also extremely jealous of other men on the base. ‘It got to the place that if other men were helping me with qualifications, he would yell at me and say only I sign off on your qualifications. That’s how it started,’ the young woman said. The full horrors of her rape are chronicled in the Oscar-nominated documentary ‘The Invisible War.’ The doctor treating her injury initially asked if she was in a car accident because it was so severe. It took seven years for her medical claim to the office of Veteran’s Affairs to come through to pay for her medical bills.

Inspiration for Law & Order SVU episode
This episode aired on Nov. 13, 2013. The title of the episode is "Military Justice". When SVU and A.D.A. Barba investigate a gang rape involving the Coast Guard, they must deal with military stonewalling, red tape, and odd legal issues. While the case is not a reenactment of events, it does have a number striking similarities to the Cioca case. In the episode, the victim is also a member of the U.S. Coastguard, and the only woman on the base. Both were assaulted by their commanding officer, both brutalized by their injuries.

References:

Written by Kori Cioca     

Kori Cioca
--Librarychattering (talk) 18:08, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Military Denial
When she reported the rape, Ms Cioca said that her Senior Chief was nonchalant about her ordeal, saying that they needed the officer for training duty and that she’d be fine. ‘I still did what I was told and I really thought they were going to do something,’ a tearful Ms Cioca told the talk show host. Ms Cioca was prescribed a host of pills to treat her physical pain, as well as her PTSD. In the film, she explained that other young servicemen had died from taking the physician-prescribed drugs. Since the rape several years ago, the survivor has been on a soft diet of mashed potatoes, Jell-O and other foods that don’t require heavy chewing. 

Advocate for Change
The survivor of a horrific military rape has bravely spoken out about her ordeal and about the daily battle to overcome her trauma. Kori Cioca, who was in the U.S. Coast Guard, was savagely raped by her commanding officer in the barracks. Her attacker dislocated her jaw but he went unpunished for the crime.Ms Cioca said she lived in fear when the officer was around. ‘I was always waiting to have my face spit in or to have him touch me and make a derogatory remark,’ she said. Cioca was horrifically raped by commanding officer in the barracks several years ago. She reported the attack but no action was taken. Said she contemplated suicide but reconsidered when she discovered she was pregnant. She said that she had high hopes of her time at the Coast Guard base in Saginaw, Michigan, saying that her commanding officer seemed ‘very nice’ when she first reported for duty. But things soon turned sour for Ms Cioca, who was the only female recruit on the entire base. She now carries a knife and a crucifix with her at all times – the cross for her prayers and the blade for protection. ‘You always have protection with Jesus, but sometimes you just need a little more,’ she said in ‘The Invisible War.’

Bringing Awareness to Sexual Assault in American Military
Sexual assault in the military has reached epidemic proportions, with one in three women in the armed forces being sexually assaulted, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 military men and women were sexually assaulted by fellow troops in 2010 alone while serving in the U.S. armed forces. At least 20 per cent of servicewomen and one per cent of men - an estimated 500,000 troops - have experienced sexual trauma while serving. In most cases, a rape victim’s only judicial recourse is to report the attack to his or her commander, even if it was the officer who attacked them, and it is the officer’s decision whether or not to investigate and prosecute. 

Media Appearances
She appears the documentary The Invisible War.

She also appeared in an Interview for Democracy Now! in January 2013. 

The former servicewoman appeared with her husband, Rob McDonald, on Katie Couric’s talk show. She told Couric that the officer would invite her to movie nights with other recruits, but would find upon arrival that she was the only one who received an invitation. ‘I’d walk in from training and he’d be sleeping in my bed,’ Ms Cioca said in the documentary, ‘The Invisible War.’ She said that though she tried to report the officer to those in charge, they were all of his drinking buddies. They told her that it was weak to complain just because she did not like him. The officer was also extremely jealous of other men on the base. ‘It got to the place that if other men were helping me with qualifications, he would yell at me and say only I sign off on your qualifications. That’s how it started,’ the young woman said. The full horrors of her rape are chronicled in the Oscar-nominated documentary ‘The Invisible War.’ The doctor treating her injury initially asked if she was in a car accident because it was so severe. It took seven years for her medical claim to the office of Veteran’s Affairs to come through to pay for her medical bills.

Inspiration for Law & Order SVU episode
This episode aired on Nov. 13, 2013. The title of the episode is "Military Justice". When SVU and A.D.A. Barba investigate a gang rape involving the Coast Guard, they must deal with military stonewalling, red tape, and odd legal issues. While the case is not a reenactment of events, it does have a number striking similarities to the Cioca case. In the episode, the victim is also a member of the U.S. Coastguard, and the only woman on the base. Both were assaulted by their commanding officer, both brutalized by their injuries.

References:

     

The Rise of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault in the Military71.211.18.45 (talk) 03:29, 3 December 2015 (UTC)J.Keiber
The United States Military takes responsibility in the fight against sexual harassment and sexual assault but not every violation of policies and regulations can be traced. Soldiers cannot be fully controlled in every aspect of their duty, which leaves room for error and crime just like it appears in the civilian world. Present research that was conducted by the Department of Defense also discredits the effectiveness of all proactive measurements the Military has put in place to combat the issue <"DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION AND RESPONSE">. Rapid changes to the policy in the past decade do not show any substantial improvements in regards to the prevention or elimination of sexual assault and harassment <"Provisional Statistical Data on Sexual Assault Fiscal Year 2014">. Numbers of reported cases of sexual assault and harassment are in an all-time high . “The 2014 RAND Military Workplace Study also determined that reports of sexual assault are up 11 percent over the previous year and 70 percent over 2012, with one in four victims reporting the crime” <"Pentagon Sexual Assault Survey">. Several institutions including high ranking officers questioned the methods and policies that are in place to tackle the issue within the Military. Lieutenant Colonel Peter D. Fromm, the deputy G-1 of the U.S. Army Japan and first Corps at Camp Zama in Japan was the head over SHARP, Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program in Japan for the senior commander, and he also beliefs that the entire military society is in need of change to fix the overall issue. Fromm explained the efforts the Army invests into the program and directs the attention to the individual soldier that causes the system to collapse. Fromm declared that junior leaders focus more on teaching how to recognize the problem and to follow the problem in order to understand the way it plays out instead of putting more emphasis on preventive methods . Furthermore, Lieutenant Colonel Heidi A. Urben of the 205th Intelligence Battalion at Fort Shafter in Hawaii, wrote an article “Extending SHARP Best Practices” in 2014, and it is about the missing efforts to support the issue at hand. Urben questioned supportive comments against sexual harassment and assault from higher Military leadership and wrote about the lack of real intervention and execution of the mission at hand. It has been suggested to reform the current regulations pertaining to the prevention tactics and the after action protocols <"Pentagon Sexual Assault Survey">. The United States military policies toward sexual harassment and sexual assault should be ratified because of the steady increase of incident reports, and the general lack of proper execution of the program and the failure in victim protection. Conclusively, creating change within the existing protocols and regulations pertaining to SHARP, may support the overall issue. The possibility of corruption and retaliation may be kept at a minimum if an outside organization could be placed in charge to regulate SHARP, and to execute regulations in the case of an incident. Also, more emphasis can be set on strategic prevention methods of sexual assault and harassment. If the Military is aware that the command can no longer intervene in an case of assault or harassment the risk of false reports along with social tormenting and victim intimidation can be excluded from their own ranks.

Works Cited

"DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION AND RESPONSE." DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ANNUAL REPORT ON SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY. Department of Defense, 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. .

Fromm, Peter. "SHARP Realities Perspectives in Tackling the Army’s Number One Priority." SHARP Realities. MILITARY REVIEW, 1 Apr. 2015. Web. 26 Nov. 2015. .

"Pentagon Sexual Assault Survey." Congressional Digest 94.6 (2015): 6. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. .

"SEXUAL HARASSMENT/ASSAULT RESPONSE & PREVENTION." SEXUAL HARASSMENT/ASSAULT RESPONSE & PREVENTION. U.S. Army. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. .

Urben, Heidi A. "Extending SHARP Best Practices." Military Review 94.2 (2014): 29-32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. .

Incorrect citation: "Ninety percent of the assault victims were eventually involuntarily discharged."
I removed this statement in the first paragraph because it was not supported by the citation it was attached to:
 * Ninety percent of the assault victims were eventually involuntarily discharged. 

It was inserted by Gandydancer (talk) on 19 March 2014 next to a pre-existing citation, an NPR article which was already the source for a number of other statistics prior to Gandydancer's edit. Those other statistics were later updated and replaced on 27 March 2014 by newer statistics from a New York Times article. However, the "ninety percent" statistic and the original NPR citation were missed by the update and were not removed.

As far as I can tell, the NPR article does not mention what percentage of victims of sexual assault are discharged. Because the citation does not support the statement and because the figure seems suspiciously tidy (exactly 90%?) I have removed it. If there is a source that does support the "ninety percent" statement or reports the correct figure, please inform.

-- Mysterius (talk) 07:29, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

I noticed that Gandydancer (talk) has reinserted a slightly modified form of the previously removed statement with a new citation:
 * A study done by the Military Rape Crisis Center reported that over 90 percent of all victims are involuntarily discharged from service while the assailant is frequently promoted or given an Honorable Discharge. 

Thanks for the update, Gandydancer. The Human Events article lists Panayiota Bertzikis, founder of the Military Rape Crisis Center, as the author of the post, but the statement itself is attributed ("she said") to a press conference held by US House Rep. Jackie Speier on November 17, 2011. I was unable to find the statement in the official press releases (here or here) but a mainstream news article on Speier's press conference did report that:
 * Out of the 13 percent of victims that report, 90 percent are involuntarily honorably discharged, as was the case for Odam. 

The ABC News article also has an accompanying video, but unfortunately while it shows Rep. Speier speaking about the first statistic the latter part is missing or cut.

I also came across a report by Human Rights Watch on more recent statistics regarding retaliation against victims who report sexual assault. From "I. Retaliation in the Military: Scope of the Problem":
 * According to a 2014 Department of Defense survey conducted by RAND Corporation, 62 percent of active service members who reported sexual assault to a military authority in the past year indicated they experienced retaliation as a result of reporting.[30] The survey defined retaliation to include professional retaliation (such as adverse personnel action), social retaliation (ostracism or maltreatment by peers or others) and administrative action or punishments. Because only active service members participate in the survey, service members who left the military—either voluntarily or involuntarily—after reporting a sexual assault are not included, so the actual rate of retaliation may well be higher.

From "I. Retaliation in the Military: Administrative or Involuntary Discharges":
 * Although we were unable through our public document requests to obtain statistics on how many sexual assault survivors stay in the service after they report sexual violence, our interviews suggest that victims often leave the service after reporting an assault. While some service members make it through to the end of their contract or are medically retired, others are discharged prematurely. Navy VLCs report that helping sexual assault survivors with discharges is a “regular part of their practice.”[96] A Marine Corps VLC said, “Almost to a man, junior Marines get out [of the service after suffering a sexual assault].”[97]

I propose putting the 2014 statistics conveyed by the Human Rights Watch report in the introductory paragraph and moving Rep. Speier's statement to the article's "Recent Statistics" section.

-- Mysterius (talk) 23:23, 10 September 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, I agree that the new source should be used first. Great find, BTW.  What would you think about renaming the first section "Overview" or something like that and creating a short lead of one or two (short) paragraphs?  The article could sure use some work if you're interested in a project.  Gandydancer (talk) 13:08, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

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Male rape
The article says (almost?) nothing about male rape/sexual assault victims in the US military. The New York Times published an incredible story yesterday: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/10/us/men-military-sexual-assault.html Ե րևանցի talk 11:54, 13 September 2019 (UTC)