Sexual Assault in the 19th Century or #ThemToo

Because, basically, men can get away with it. Very few men are prosecuted for it during war, and commanders usually do not come down very hard on it. I mean, it’s kind of like the military right now, what they’re going through. Military women are being raped and they often have to report to the person who may have been the rapist, or who may have been friends with the rapist. So it really hasn’t changed. [Ed. Note: In a 2012 survey, 6.1 percent of active duty military women reported they had experienced “unwanted sexual contact” in the past year. Of these, 67 percent did not report the incident.]

I really despise the inference here that US soldiers are routinely treating their female counterparts this way. I served thirty years in the US Army with 33 months in a war zone. In that time I knew of exactly one incident that could be described as abusing individual information trying to gain sexual favor. In that case one junior enlisted gained access to certain medical information (illegally) that he used to try and blackmail the female soldier into sexual favors. He was caught and treated very harshly by the command. That being said I believe that anywhere that male and females are comingled such things will happen. I don't believe that the incidents of these in the military are any greater than in the civilian world. All such incidents are deplorable but soldiers are no more guilty than those in the civilian world.
You are absolutely right, Dan. Soldiers who sexually harass or rape their fellow soldiers should be publicly drummed out of the military on their way to a very long stay in jail. BDU's are not a very sexy look for a woman, so the perverts don't have that old excuse for assaulting women. There are just some men who feel they are entitled or who just cannot control their own urges. These men need to be found out and removed from the military service. It is not good enough that the incident rate is no higher than in the civilian population. Discipline should be much better in the armed forces and there should be zero tolerance for sexual harassment, assault and rape. And, when offenders are caught, punishment should be very severe.
 
It was never my intention to make this inference in any of my posts

Then why mention that statistic at all?

I mean, it’s kind of like the military right now
Plenty of inference included here.

As I have said here many times; soldiers are a microcosm of the soceity as a whole. What happens in the civilian world will happen in the military. There are efforts to weed out some of the worst elements in the recruiting process but some will always get through. A complete reading of the study quoted would produce this:

This number of estimated incidents amounts to 6.1 percent of female and 1.2 percent of male service members.[114]

Similar studies done by the Department of Justice in the civilian college population, a comparable population to the military due to the high percentage of younger service members, reported higher rates of sexual assault. The 2000 study reported that 19 percent of college women had been “sexually victimized,”
[115] and a 2007 study reported that 13.7 percent of women had been victims of a sexual assault in college.[116]

While these studies suggest that the military’s sexual assault issues may be less serious than in civilian society, sexual assault has a uniquely greater damaging effect on the military, such that even one incident is unacceptable. Incidents of sexual assault are detrimental to morale, destroy unit cohesion, show disrespect for the chain of command, and damage the military as a whole, both internally as well as externally. Service members are trained for situations in which it is essential to trust both enlisted members of the unit and the chain of command completely. Sexual assault in the military destroys that trust, which can detract from the readiness of America’s armed forces.
 
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Then why mention that statistic at all?


Plenty of inference included here.

As I have said here many times; soldiers are a microcosm of the soceity as a whole. What happens in the civilian world will happen in the military. There are efforts to weed out some of the worst elements in the recruiting process but some will always get through. A complete reading of the study quoted would produce this:

This number of estimated incidents amounts to 6.1 percent of female and 1.2 percent of male service members.[114]

Similar studies done by the Department of Justice in the civilian college population, a comparable population to the military due to the high percentage of younger service members, reported higher rates of sexual assault. The 2000 study reported that 19 percent of college women had been “sexually victimized,”
[115] and a 2007 study reported that 13.7 percent of women had been victims of a sexual assault in college.[116]

While these studies suggest that the military’s sexual assault issues may be less serious than in civilian society, sexual assault has a uniquely greater damaging effect on the military, such that even one incident is unacceptable. Incidents of sexual assault are detrimental to morale, destroy unit cohesion, show disrespect for the chain of command, and damage the military as a whole, both internally as well as externally. Service members are trained for situations in which it is essential to trust both enlisted members of the unit and the chain of command completely. Sexual assault in the military destroys that trust, which can detract from the readiness of America’s armed forces.

My only post referencing the military is #37. It is factual and documented. What is your issue with post #37? Why are you quoting your own post?
 
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