Which forms of violence are the U.S. military willing to recognize? An Air Force veteran and survivor of military sexual trauma (MST) has raised the question in an interview with USA Today.  Twenty years ago, an airman raped recent enlistee Lisa Wilken in her dorm room. When she reported the assault, though, military prosecutors discouraged her from pursuing a case against her assailant because, as they said, the attack hadn’t been “violent enough.”

Restricting the definition of violence is a powerful weapon of the violent. Within an honest discussion of harm and coercion, the violence of sexual assault–regardless of the physical specifics–is indisputable. Yet the ability to declare authoritatively which forms of injury deserve the label allows the military ...