So Much For Lessons Learned From The Tailgate Scandal

Assault Reports Up At US Naval Academy

A national victims advocate group that monitors college crime says the number of sexual assaults reported at the U.S. Naval Academy appears high compared with civilian schools', especially at a campus with so few women.

But experts say it is impossible to know whether the figures are the result of more assaults or better reporting.

As a former trainer of social workers, police officers and students on the social and psychological dynamics of rape, incest and other sexual assaults, I completely agree that there could be an increase in the number of cases being reported, increased awareness of the problem (especially "date rape") and a greater willingness of law enforcement (and colleges) to take reports seriously.

However, there is also a problem in the reporting as well. There is advocacy among some radical feminists that would include all types of sexual contact as a sex crime. At one point in my life and career I would have rejected this premise and called it an exaggeration in the most ridiculous fashion. But a few years ago I participated in the BOLD lecture series offered by Harvard University's Berkeley Center that focused on Violence Against Women (VAW). There were proponents of a most extreme ideology that stated, quite matter of factly, that all men were violent... especially sexually violent. In the minds of these "advocates" there were no actions taken by the male of the species that was not inherently violent. During the process of "discourse" those of us that rejected the premise that all men were inherently violent--especially in terms of sexual behaviors--and called for empirical evidence to support such a claim were actually asked to curb our participation and resist posting responses so that the view being proposed could be submitted without "interference."

Now, that being said, I was also a member of the US Navy long enough to know that there is sexism, racism and sexual harassment occurring every day in the US Navy. Since I was stationed with Marines, Army soldiers, and worked with Coast Guard and Air Force personnel throughout my military career, I saw it in every branch of the services. Even some of the names used to refer to women in the service reveals the sexism and disregard for personal integrity:

Women in the Navy are still referred to as "WAVES" even though the term is a hold over from WWII. A male sailor would often refer to a one-night stand with a female sailor as "riding a WAVE."

Another derogatory term used, especially among naval aviators, is "split tail." This is an obvious reference to female anatomical differences and is used in a sexual and non-sexual context, although it is always sexist.

Females in the Marine Corps are referenced as "BAMs", which translates to "broad-assed marines." Again, it is used in sexual and non-sexual context, but is always sexist.

It is not that much different in the Army, Coast Guard or Air Force.

Part of this is acculturation brought into the service by people, but some of it is also the culture in the military. It has changed since I left service in 1983, and there have been ripples of change since the Tailgate Scandal, but sexism remains alive and well in the US military.

But sexual assaults are not merely about sexism. Seldom are sexual assaults about sex either. As most scholars, law enforcement personnel and therapists will attest, sexual assaults are about control, power and domination. There is usually something inadequate inherent in the person committing the assault. These inadequacies are likely to surface in much more manifestly observable ways when there is an increase in stress. Military academies and training facilities are inherently designed to increase the stress experienced by indivduals to determine who can, and who cannot, withstand the pressures of the military experience. Given the stressors, and the inadequacies surfacing under such stress, the number of sexual assaults is somewhat predictable.

However, at no time is sexual assault tolerable. This is where the military as a whole, and the service academies in particular, have failied.

The military college in Annapolis recorded a marked increase in sexual assault allegations over the past four academic years ending in June, with only a few resulting in convictions, according to an internal document prepared by the school.

The figures show 45 reports of sexual assault by midshipmen between 2001 and 2005. The reports rose from four in the 2001-02 academic year to 17 in 2004-05.

Only two of the cases resulted in court-martial convictions, with unspecified jail time, according to the report. The figures include 27 rapes, six indecent acts and 12 reports of indecent touching. It did not say how many of those were substantiated. Twenty of the cases involved civilians.

There is prima facie evidence that there has been a lack of due diligence in the pursuit of these issues and cases. If only two cases have resulted in courts martial conviction, somebody has failed to do their job. A NIS/NCIS investigation is ordinarily conducted on a military reservation of some sort. Military bases are significantly more secure than any civilian area. Why then would there not be a more successful conviction rate? There can only be one answer: the investigations and prosecutions are not pursued in a diligent manner. The rate of convictions for rape and sexual assaults in the civilian world is much higher. The civilian arena has less security, a wider jurisdiction and a greater number of people to deal with in the invesitgation process. Most sexual assaults occurring in the civilian world are investigated by local, county or state police. The military has military police investigators, criminal investigation divisions or investigative services, as well as access to federal law enforcement resources from the FBI, ATF, etc. Additionally, practically everyone allowed onto a military base has undergone some form of registration, security check and almost everyone in the military community is already fingerprinted.

One would expect that since the female population on campus at the US Naval Academy is significantly smaller than at most colleges, we could expect to see less sexual assaults... so why isn't this the case?

We can only hope that someone at Annapolis, the Pentagon, and the DOD are paying attention to this report... and the significant problems that it reveals.