The Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault in the Military

We can train, fight and die together yet there is still assault among our fighting team. Why is it in the midst of battle or when we want to give up during PT, we will motivate and protect each other, yet still find it acceptable to Sexually Harass/Assault each other? Granted not everyone is doing it and preventing sexual assault is our DUTY (seems like an Army Value or something), but for decades the military has lived off the concept that “If you person shits, we all wear diapers.” Men and woman in the Armed Forces are taught from day one to always have each other’s back, but there is the select few that decide to ruin a person’s life forever. In this essay, we will look further into the aspect of sexual assault from my perspective. 

After years and years of internal disciplinary actions the military sought after a way to help and control Sexual Assault/Harassment yet continually came up with the same result, more and more yearly reports. In Jan 2015, the Sexual Harassment Assault Response Program was implemented, this was the end all be all program according to many researchers, question is, would it work though? As in many newly released additions to the military, it definitely had its skeptics. Before getting to in-depth into the program lets first clarify the biggest differences in Assault and Harassment. Besides, no use in me getting all intellectual on you if you have no idea what I am talking about correct.

Though many finely educated people like to believe that Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment are the same thing, well in fact they are not! I know your mind is now officially blown, well grab those pieces of grey matter off the wall and let me enlighten you. Sexual Harassment is defined as “Conduct that involves unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and deliberate or repeated offensive comments or gestures of a sexual nature. A sweet college definition for sure, but in simple terms, conversations that are unwelcome or constantly bugging someone in a way that makes them uncomfortable, that’s harassment. Now, Sexual Assault is a more physical animal and is defined as “Intentional sexual contact characterized by the use of force, threats, intimidation, or abuse of authority or when the victim does not or cannot consent.” Sum this one up as rapping a person (because rape and sexual assault are interchangeable), forcing sexual acts upon someone or using your status/rank in life as coercion to get what you want. Now that we have defined the differences in the two, we can have a better understanding of why things continually happen in the Army.

I believe the majority of sexual harassments that occur in the Army are primarily due to one’s career, and how most people they are conditioned to that particular atmosphere being “normal”. Anyone that has spent more than a day in the military knows the language is less than what we would presented at the Thanksgiving table with the parents around. However, not all the time is it a bad thing, but if it makes a person feel out of place or uncomfortable then it can become a problem. With minor correction this problem could be fixed, but we find it is easier to tell someone “this is how we work” and move on. What we fail to notice though, is the effects it may have on that person. Short and Long term effects are all justified by that person, and that person alone.

If we think about the more severe actions in the cases of assault then we can see this is no longer just a case of workplace environment having a negative connotation on someone. This situation is a conscious effort on ones part, to negatively affect a person’s life without any care of consequences to that person. In our society we are raised at a young age to always take care of females yet when becoming an adult it seems some allow their morals and judgments to drift away. Sexual Assaults can be prevented in my opinion, by not allowing the small thing that are tolerated in the workplace to grow into what others feel is acceptable. For example, at work it’s accepted to joke around sexual with opposite sex members when you know them or work closely with them and they are comfortable. Some people don’t see a definitive line you don’t cross and next thing you know things are taken way to far, and now bad things happen.

In closing I would like to bring up that in 2020 woman are supposed to be fully integrated into all military jobs, this being said some are jobs are primarily male dominant and have always been. Therefore, by correcting the small things now, we can elevate the future negative connotations later. Statistically, it has been said, someone is assaulted every 110 seconds whether it be military or civilian, I think by people standing up and keeping those strong values, things can drastically be diminished. We are a melting pot of intelligence, experience and amazing leadership, we need to take care of one another.

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