Abstract
Rape in the United States military has historically been viewed as a myth that did not need to be addressed. This way of thinking is the result of the viewpoints of a rape culture. These viewpoints work to legitimize the violence to remove all blame from the attacker, which makes the violence strategic and intentional. It has been noted the main reason intra-military is underreported is, the fact the attacker usually holds a higher level of superiority. This reality results in, the victim needing to report the event with their attacker.
It has been reported by the Marine Corps, on January 11, 2008, there was an incident which resulted in the death of a pregnant female Marine who was raped by the hands of her superior officer. This death was probably the result of the young woman becoming pregnant from her rape event, which needed to remain a secret, because it would prove which person was responsible for her attack. On March 31, 2008 United States representative Jane Harmen stated, “Women serving in the United States military are more likely to be raped by a fellow officer, than killed by enemy fire in Iraq. It is clear this problem has gone way out of hand. The only way to prove whether or not the intra-military rape is a real issue, it is necessary for the complaints of these sexually violent crimes to be reported to a neutral third party that can formally investigate what is actually occurring within the branches of the military.
Keywords: intra-military rape, gender-based violent crimes, subordinate
Rape in the United States military has historically been viewed as a myth that did not need to be addressed. This way of thinking is the result of the viewpoints of a rape culture. Rape culture is defined as, the belief a man can diminish their role as the attacker in a rape scenario regardless of the setting (Carroll, Rosenstein, Foubert, Clark, & Korenman, 2016). This is achieved by valuing masculine traits like dominance and aggression and diminishing feminine traits which allows them to look more like a target instead of a victim.
In 1975, Susan Brownmiller wrote a book called “Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.” This book characterized the Vietnam War as sociological warfare with one of its main weapons being rape. Sadly, this rape was not only endured by civilians, but the American female military personnel who were in the field. This book brought light to the idea of military rape in the 20th century, but it is obvious it has become any even worse problem in the modern world. This paper will discuss the history of rape in the military, how it applies to intra-military situations, rape myth statistics, pro and con viewpoints on the prevalence of intra-military rape, and how this applies to civilian victims.
Moving beyond the idea of a rape culture, in other settings there are similar norms and attitudes that demonize the victim in order to blame them for the violence they had to endure. Besides the military, college universities have their own problems related to fraternities and sororities. These viewpoints work to legitimize the violence to remove all blame from the attacker, which makes the violence strategic and intentional (Carroll, Rosenstein, Foubert, Clark, & Korenman, 2016).
The silent abuse of female military personnel was perpetuated by the gendered-nature of the military which led to the need to define the term as gender crimes (Cernak, 2015). What is interesting is the majority of literature available on this topic focuses on the victim of the crime being a female, but there are some instances involving male victims. Military-on-military sexual violence has been defined because it directly harms personnel, disrupts the efficiency of operations, and undermines the recruitment processes.
Both parties involved in a sexually violent situation are harmed during the process. Disruption to efficiency is inevitable since all parties are not in favor of the situation which tends to have even more negative outcomes. When military personnel return home and tell others about their experience, it undermines the recruitment of others, especially when the victim was afraid to report the incident. Over the past several years, there has been more media attention devoted to the issues related to intra-military sexual assault and rape in the United States armed forces.
It has been noted the main reason intra-military incidents are underreported is the fact the attacker usually holds a higher level of superiority. This reality is compounded by the fact, the victim would need to report the event, with their attacker. Despite the colorful debate in the United States Congress, there have not been able to create reforms which are successful in reducing the prevalence of rape in the military. Once a subordinate victim steps out of line to contact the superior of their attacker, they are labeled as insubordinate which basically punishes the victim all over again.
Intra-military rape is not unique to the United States, which has now led to the creation of international human rights laws that prohibit all instances of gender-based violence including rape and sex-trafficking. In some scenarios the sex traffickers are run by militaries, while others involve civilians. People are able to rationalize gender-based violence and crimes by making the victim the target of pain or redemption. This is where the idea of rape myths comes into play, because it basically creates scenarios which rape acceptable or not a serious crime that would require any type of punishment.
The first study researched on this topic included 1,169 participants in the United States military, with 1,003 men, and 166 women. Even in the research, the higher prevalence of men to women makes it easier for women and weaker men to be exploited since they are a small fraction of the overall population. Each participant completed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale’s short form. Similar to other findings, men are more accepting of rape myths than women. These results were also compared to a study completed on the University, which showed fraternity men were more accepting of rape myths than military people, but sorority women were also more supporting of the same rape myths than military women.. Additionally, it was also clarified the military had more designations of sexual assault which shows how ingrained the rape culture is in the United States military.
36% of military men and 32% of military women feel the victim is responsible for their rape if they are intoxicated. This is a dangerous reality, but is even worse in the university setting because parties are thrown to intentionally get people intoxicated. This is usually supported by the idea of the person buying drinks having the right to push up on the victim. It is quite common for people to feel obligated to give up sex to those who spend money on them. This is another example of the rape culture, because even the victim agrees with some of the myths.
33% of military men and 23.2% of military women believe rape occurs when a man’s sex drive in out of control. This is also a devisive excuse because it makes it seem it is okay for a man to succumb to his savage rages as if it is their right to take what they want, especially if they are trained to kill anything that comes their way. Those who say they could not help themselves make it seem the women was so beautiful they could not restrain themselves. This is a common excuse in Arab countries because it allows them to blame the victim and allow her to be publically punished.
24.4% of military men and 14.1% military women believed rape accusations are a method of women getting back at men. There is no specific description as to what the women would want redemption from, because it focuses on woman being manipulative and untrustworthy. There is a significant drop in the acceptance of this myth, but it scary to see people actually still feel this way.
22.2% of military men and 17.8% of military women feel it is acceptable to rape a victim if they are dressed provocatively. This myth blames the victim while stressing the idea the man could not help themselves. This can be compared to 5% of military men and 2.7% military women believe women who tease men deserve whatever it is they receive and should be anticipating it. At least this myth is down to single digit acceptance, it is just scary to think any people feel this way. The least rape myth statistic was associated with 2% of military men and 2.6% of women feel rape victims secretly want to be raped.
There is one rape myth which has been applied into criminal law which implies there needs to be poof of defensive or offensive bruising or bleeding to prove the women resisted the offense in question. This requirement of proof has been used in military and civilian laws. 7.4% of military men and 5.7% of military women feel proof is necessary to file a formal report of an incident. This myth focuses on the idea if a woman does not forcefully say no, the sexual activity was consensual.
The second study researched was focused on male rape victims. It is believed 50% of the rape victims in an intra-military setting are male. This is why “don’t’ ask, don’t tell” was a powerful belief in the military because it allowed taboo sexual behavior and sexual violence to be swept under the rug and ignored. If no one was talking about what was happening, the rape culture would never need to change. There are several sexual myths which are focused on a male victim.
This form of male-on-male rape or female-on-male rape are not important. It is also argued that intra-military rape between two or more men is more about homosexuality which means it is not actual rape. This shifts the idea of intra-military rape being a violent act to more of a sexual deviant behavior. 47% of military men felt male-on-male rape is no big deal because at least one of the parties involved must be gay. It is common for homosexual people to be the loudest criticizers of homosexual behavior because they still feel it is necessary to hide their differing sexual preference.
23% of military men and 9% of military women believe it is not possible for a man to ever be raped regardless of the sex of the attacker. This is because it is believed the men will enjoy the experience regardless. It is less likely a man would ever report they were raped by a woman because of the ridicule they could endure from filing an official report about the incident.
The frequency and forms of sexual violence vary across different cultures, conflicts, and time periods. In the past, it was more acceptable to use rape not only as a prize for the winning military force, but as a strategic weapon of war for all parties involved. This is where the different types of rape come into play. Each designation diminishes the value of the victim and creates rational excuses to legitimize the gender-based violent act. Wide-spread rape, also occurred in the past because times of war create protections for military forces to do whatever is necessary to win and end the killing. It was common to terrorize the civilians during an invasion of a foreign nation because there was no one to answer to. Especially without the mass media of the modern world.
Some would explain the reduction in the rape of civilians has coincided with the increased prevalence of intra-military rape. The problem is any attempt by the military to reduce the prevalence is met with people who feel there is no rape problem in the first place. The main argument is the fact there are so few official reports of rape there is nothing to discuss. The conversation results in a half-hearted attempt to correct the problem without acknowledging there is a problem in the first place.
There will never be an increase of reported intra-military rape, because it is highly unlikely the attacker will give up their opportunity to rape those who are subordinate to themselves. Especially if they are the individual who is going to take the report. As an example, if the attacker takes a report from their victim, it is likely they will intimidate and coerce the victim until they refuse to file the report. Even if the victim goes through with filing the report, there is no guarantee the attacker will file the paperwork.
Military law is meant to protect the superior officers, which usually leaves the victims of many crimes in the military unreported. The denial is the conservative viewpoint used for many areas of life which effect every day citizens, including the military, women’s health, and climate change. Military law is viewed as a special realm of criminal justice that has remained dominated by legal precedents which have been in favor of superior male individuals. This has not only been a culture to subjugate women, but continue to demonize minorities and blame them for the terrible conditions they have been forced to live in. This includes making women and minorities less than their white-male counterparts. This can include people lying, being lazy, or appearing to be weak. This means the deck is stacked twice as high for a black female military officer than any other group.
Bringing this idea back to fraternities and sororities, which have historically been known to haze possible new recruits to see if the institution wants to include the prospective new member. Some have become accustomed to the idea of hazing in order to be accepted. This also occurs in some professions, gangs, and secret organizations. Some view the hazing as a positive experience, others explain them to be negative. It depends on the terms and setting the hazing occurs.
It has been reported by the Marine Corps, on January 11, 2008, there was an incident which resulted in the death of a pregnant female Marine who was raped by the hands of her superior officer. This death was probably the result of the young woman becoming pregnant from her rape event, which needed to remain a secret, because it would prove which person was responsible for her attack. The problem is the military can keep any secrets it wants because they are in a different status than general citizens which reduces the rights of their members.
This is why sexual violence needs to be addressed internationally, because all too often sexual violence is used as a tool of fear to make those victims compliant. In rape incidents outside of the military, the victims go through the same processes as the military victims, which focuses on diminishing the roles of the attacker and focusing more on the role the supposed victim played.
In conclusion, on March 31, 2008 United States representative Jane Harmen stated, “Women serving in the United States military are more likely to be raped by a fellow officer, than killed by enemy fire in Iraq”. It is clear this problem has become way out of hand. The only way to prove whether or not the intra-military rape is a real issue is to make it necessary for the complaints of these sexually violent crimes to be reported to a neutral third party that can formally investigate what is actually occurring within the branches of the military. Of course the third party would need to have security clearance to make sure secrets that need to be kept are able to remain confidential. This is important to the victim and the supposed attacker to protect those who have been harmed, and defend against false accusations.
References
Carroll, M. H., Rosenstein, J. E., Foubert, S. D., Clark, M. D., & Korenman, L. M. (2016, April 11). Rape Myth Acceptance: A Comparison of Military Service Academy and Civilian Fraternity and Sorority Students. Military Psychology. doi:10.1037/mil0000113
Cernak, S. (2015). SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE IN THE MILITARY: THE INVISIBLE VICTIMS OF INTERNATIONAL GENDER CRIMES AT THE FRONT LINES. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, 22(1), 207-241.
Hillman, E. L. (2009, March). Front and Center: Sexual Violence in U.S. Military Law. Politics and Society, 37(1), 102-129. doi:10.1177/0032329208329753
O'Brien, C., Keith, J., & Shoemaker, L. (2015, November). Don’t tell: Military culture and male rape. Psychological Seevices, 12(4), 357-365. doi:10.1037/ser0000049
Wood, E. J. (2009, March). Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare? Politics and Society, 37(1), 131-161. doi:10.1177/0032329208329755
