According to a Pentagon study, there were unprecedented numbers of sexual assaults against women in the U.S. military last year, with 8.4% of women on active duty reporting unwelcome sexual contact and another 29% reporting harassment.
Even worse, more and more servicewomen claim that if they report an attack, they won’t get a fair trial. Compared to 66 percent in 2018, just 39 percent of respondents said they believed the military would treat them with respect and dignity following an event.
The increased rates of sexual assault have been dubbed “tragic” and “disappointing” by military leaders, who also point out the challenges in increasing the role of women in the armed forces while still trying to reach recruitment goals after decades of conflict.
According to a private Department of Defense study, reports of sexual assaults in the military as a whole increased by 13% last year. Nearly 36,000 service members, both men and women, reported having had unwelcome sexual contact.
The fact that so many “service members’ lives and careers were forever damaged by these acts” was “tragic and incredibly disheartening,” according to Elizabeth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency.
Every event affects the unit as a whole, undermines confidence among members, and detracts from the urgent objective at hand, she said.
The highest spike in in a decade in reports involving Army personnel, according to authorities, has increased by roughly 26% after bases dropped Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and public spaces reopened.
The Army is concerned about the steep increase since it is failing to reach its recruitment targets and is predicted to fall short by as many as 10,000 by the end of September.
The Pentagon has spent a lot of time trying to come up with plans to stop unwelcome sexual contact, which may range from groping to rape, and to get more individuals to come forward.
The military has improved the safety and ease of reporting even higher commanders, but it has had less success in lowering the total number of assaults, which have been gradually increasing since 2006.
The National Defense Authorization Act of last December reformed military justice and removed the authority of commanders to decide whether to pursue sexual offences. President Joe Biden has made sexual harassment a military code infraction.
However, some lawmakers and activists claim that these measures fall short of what is necessary to persuade both male and female military members who have been abused to come forward, since many are afraid of being called “troublemakers” or worse.
American congressman Jackie Speier, a co-chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, said that she will organise a hearing in the coming weeks to persuade military leaders to address a “national humiliation” under the “watchful eye of Congress.”
Cases like those of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen in recent years have brought the problem to light. After reporting sexual harassment, the 20-year-old, stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, was bludgeoned to death, dismembered, and buried in a shallow grave.
The emphasis on sexual assaults comes at a difficult moment for the U.S. military, which is having trouble drawing in new recruits and faces a shortage of 10,000 troops this year and more serious issues in the future.
The percentage of military members who would urge others to enrol decreased by over 12 points, to 62.9 percent, between 2019 and 2021, according to research conducted by the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) in July.
Three-quarters of those polled were in debt, more than half were unable to save, 61 percent had difficulties paying their rent, and an alarming 17 percent indicated they were sometimes unable to put enough food on the table due to a lack of funds.