Why The Number of Sexual Assaults Continues to Increase Throughout The Army

I will be discussing on why sexual assault cases continue rise even though the army has set certain type of training to stop that from occurring, the elimination of sexual assault has been a long-standing goal of the United States army and yet it is still happening. According to an article from USA Today, it shows that sexual assault cases have risen by 38 percent from 2016 to 2018. Sexual Harassment Assault and Prevention are 5 words that have been driven into the minds of many, but do people actually listen, learn, and retain such knowledge?

The big question is always why does sexual assault occur? There can be many reasons why it happens and some of those reasons can be lack of knowledge, no confidence in chain of command, and alcohol consumption. No actions are excusable and Incidents of sexual assault are detrimental to morale, destroy unit cohesion, and damage the military as a whole, both internally as well as externally. Although, we get SHARP training to avoid these incidents from happening it’s still happening. Sexual Harassment cases are rising so something is wrong with the training we are getting. The troubling statistics also show that the majority about 70 percent still do not officially report such incidents. So that just shows that even with the numbers rising now it’s still going to be a problem because 70 percent are going unreported. And some of the un-reporting can be, because a soldier is not comfortable or confident in their chain in command.

As an organization the Army has to try and resolve the biggest issue which is sexual assault. And how can we do that? I believe that for these SHARP training we can have some survivors or even someone who actually committed these crimes to actually come and give a speech on what influenced their decision to sexually assault someone and tell the soldiers the repercussions that came their way. This can be a great way for soldiers to connect with the person knowing that they were also soldiers at one point and how a bad decision they made as sexual assault got them to where they are now. Having a survivor come and talk would also be a great way to connect because you will have the point of view of the victim and it would maybe make you think before doing something that can ruin your career as well as hurting the person you did it too. A lot of soldiers don’t really pay attention during SHARP training because the classes are boring and what we hear is the same stuff over and over. Soldiers are not retaining information from the training and the Army as a whole has to fix that issue.

To summarize the main points I made the army has to fix the issue with soldiers not being able to retain information from these training, have the soldier feel comfortable to come to their chain of command, and try and solve the alcohol issue. Although, alcohol can be a hard one to stop it would be more beneficial if they just have someone who has been in that position before to talk because soldiers might be more attentive to the subject. And having a better class environment would let students retain information that is being taught and they will have more knowledge in sexual assault by hearing different points of views and it will help them make better decisions. Maybe even get bystanders to step in if they witness sexual assault happening. Sexual Assault has no place in the Army or any branch in that matter. We are all brothers and sisters in arms and we should be looking out for one another not hurting each other.

References

• USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/02/military-sexual-assaults-climb-2016-2018-pentagon-army-navy-marines-alcohol/3625405002/
• Kirby, J. (2019, May 3). Retrieved from vox: https://www.vox.com/world/2019/5/3/18528148/pentagon-military-sexual-assault-report-shanahan