Military fails sex-assault victims
Veterans Kori Cioca of Wilmington, Ohio, left, and Panayiota Bertzikis f Somerville, Mass., who were assaulted and raped while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, are plaintiffs seeking change in the military's handling of rape, and sexual assault cases. Credit: AP
Jessica Stern is the author of "Denial: A Memoir of Terror" and a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law. This is from The Washington Post.
Seventeen former and active-duty service members filed a class-action lawsuit earlier this month against Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, alleging that the military failed to stop rapes, investigate reported crimes or prosecute perpetrators. While the suit is new, the problem of sexual assault of service members by other service members has long been known to the military leadership.
The Defense Department recorded 3,230 sexual assaults involving members of our military in fiscal 2009, up 11 percent from 2008. But the Pentagon itself concluded in 2006 that only 20 percent of "unwanted sexual contacts" are reported to a military authority, about half of the rate in the civilian sector. Victims of military sexual assault are often forced to choose between frequent contact with the perpetrators or sacrificing their career goals to avoid retaliation.
If they do come forward, victims face military rules that are years behind standard law enforcement procedures for sexual assault. Victims in the services are not guaranteed access to military lawyers, nor is the confidentiality of conversations with victims' advocates guaranteed. If victims choose a "restricted" reporting route - one of two options - they are not allowed to discuss the trauma, including with friends, which increases the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. But the details of the other reporting option mean victims' superiors can often ascertain the identities of those who have come forward, increasing the risk of retaliation.
The Pentagon has taken steps to reduce the frequency of rape: It created the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office in 2005 and in 2009 it established a task force to study the issue.
But the military is still not making available accurate statistics about the extent of the problem or the services and benefits that survivors have received, so progress is difficult to measure.
Sexual assault is associated with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder in men and women and an even higher rate of PTSD than that reported by men after exposure to combat. A 2006 study by researchers in Los Angeles found that 60 percent of women exposed to military sexual trauma developed PTSD. Soldiers are already under extraordinary stress, the reasoning suggests, and when loyalty to the unit is a matter of life and death, it is even more difficult to process or talk about the trauma. Compounding these procedural shortcomings are the constraints of military service: Unlike civilians, victims cannot quit their jobs without risk of imprisonment, so they may be repeatedly retraumatized by being in the presence of their abuser.
It is also significantly more difficult for victims of sexual assault to obtain benefits for PTSD. The VA eased rules last July regarding benefits for psychological injuries, but victims of military sexual trauma are often unable to provide sufficient proof of an "initial stressor" that caused their PTSD.
The defense authorization bill President Barack Obama signed into law last month includes a provision that would improve prevention and response policies. The House version required that victims of sexual assault be guaranteed access to a lawyer, but the Senate required only that the Defense Department "study the feasibility of" providing a military lawyer to all victims of sexual assault.
Denying the significance of sexual crimes is not unique to the military. But in the case of military sexual assaults, the costs are especially far-reaching. Tacit tolerance severely damages the morale and resilience of individual service members. It also threatens more than individuals: It undermines readiness and mobilization capacity and, ultimately, our national security.
