Can Anything Prevent Rape in the Military?

One year after the Navy’s Victim Legal Counsel (VCL) program began, Karen Fischer-Anderson, who heads the program, praised the mission and the work its legal counselors have done for victims, calling it a “win-win for everyone.” With 29 counselors in the U.S., Europe and Asia overseeing an average of 40 cases in the last year, the praise of the program stops short of addressing the ongoing horror of military rape. While any and all attempts to “give voice” and provide free military counsel to victims of sexual assault is a long-overdue goal for victim’s rights, the creation of the program is entirely independent of assault prevention and accountability programs in the military.

The staggering rates of military rape (against both men and women) have been steadily gaining exposure in the last few years, thanks in part to women coming forward, putting their careers and anonymity at risk, and speaking out against their attackers and against the military’s prosecutorial inaction against its members. After viewing the 2012 documentary The Invisible War, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta “directed military commanders to hand over all sexual assault investigations to a higher-ranking colonel.” But of all of the new systems created for victims and aggressors, none address preventing sexual assault in the first place. In a disturbing scene in the documentary, a warning video made for women in the military stresses the importance of always traveling with a buddy at night. In it, a frightened woman is chastised by a male officer for traveling alone, thus putting the blame and onus on her had she been assaulted.

Military history celebrates victories against despots, torturers and violent militias. Rape is a commonly used tactic of guerrilla warfare to terrify civilians. Our military prides itself as being peacekeepers of the free world and protectors of its borders. So why are women (and some men) not safe in the very institution that protects and serves? Does it come down to having to retrain men during basic boot camp to respect women? Where does that training even begin? When a man enters the military, he brings every fabric of his upbringing to an institution that heightens combativeness and physical strength. Take an eighteen-year-old from a family or community that abuses women or has violent tendencies or anger-management issues, and put that kid in the military with no sensitivity training and little consequence or accountability coming down the chain of command. How does the creation of a counseling force after the fact “address” the problem of military rape in the first place? Sadly, it doesn’t.

What will stop a member of the military from harassing or raping another member of the military? Will knowing that the victim will receive free legal counsel should she or he request it be a compelling enough reason to check oneself and stop? I doubt it. But can the military even begin to address changing the mindset of its members? More and more women are coming forward, military and civilian alike, but it never stops. The question of how to make it stop, so far, is unanswerable.

Header image credit: Presidio of Monterey