Bad News of the Day: One in Five Air Force Women Say They Have Been Sexually Assaulted

(Flickr/Official U.S. Air Force)

Ugh. The Christian Science Monitor reported last week:

In a quiet push to more honestly address sexual crimes within the military, the Air Force will release a survey later this week that finds 1 in 5 women say they have been sexually assaulted since joining the service.

One of the most comprehensive studies undertaken by the US military to assess sexual assaults within its ranks, it could become a model for how the military as a whole begins to address the problem, defense officials say.

Unfortunately, we're finding that sexual assault rates in the military are higher than rates among the general population. As horrible as this news is, it's encouraging the military is actually reporting the assaults. It's the first step in addressing the problem.

What Will It Take To Make a Consistent Sexual Assault Policy on Campuses Nationwide?

T-shirts San Francisco Women Against Rape created for a 2009 Walk Against Rape. (Flickr/Steve Rhodes)

Today the Chronicle of Higher Education has a really excellent piece on the current debate over sexual assault policies on campus. (Unfortunately, the story is behind a paywall, but I'll discuss some of the relevant bits below and for further context, you should read this really great series from the Center for Public Integrity on the problems with many campus sexual assault policies.)

It seems that whether a victim will receive justice for her assault (the vast majority of victims are women, though they aren't the only ones) depends greatly on where she attends school. Part of this stems from confusion over the law itself:

Federal civil-rights law requires [colleges and universities] to resolve all reported of­fenses. And increasingly, public pressure bears down just as powerfully. [...] The watchdog group Security on Campus proposed broader federal legislation, even a requirement that colleges use the relatively low standard of evidence "more likely than not." And at Dickinson College this month, students occupied an administration building and demanded that expulsion be the only available penalty for rape.

Meanwhile, confusion over existing law persists. The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights recently found that two institutions, Eastern Michigan University and Notre Dame College, in Ohio, did not adequately consider the rights of sexual-assault victims. Observers expect the office to release more guidance this spring on how cases should proceed, apart from general campus-conduct systems.

What this ultimately reveals is that sexual assault policies vary widely by campus, depending on university policy, interpretation of the law, and campus culture. These factors all leave a great deal of sexual assault policy up to the discretion of individuals. Though it's sometimes helpful to have room for special circumstances—especially since rape cases sometimes are thin on provable evidence—but ultimately what campuses need is a consistent best practices approach to dealing with sexual assault.

And figuring out what such a policy might be is difficult. The Chronicle article points out:

For cases that are reported, single sanctions may decrease findings of responsibility. "If the hearing panel has any doubt at all, they're going to acquit," says Gary M. Pavela, a consultant to colleges on legal issues and a former director of student judicial programs at the University of Maryland at College Park. Technical explanations of standards of evi­dence don't matter, he says: "Your eyes glaze over and you do ulti­mately what you think is right."

Finding a balance between investigating cases fairly and providing strong support for potential victims is tricky, but, as Dickson college found, being precise and providing a range of offenses as well as clear definitions is helpful. The school was awarded a $300,000 federal grant administered by the Department of Justice designed to encourage individual institutions to implement a comprehensive and fair sexual assault policy on campuses for its implementation of mandatory prevention education programs.

The grant program is a good incentive, but it also means that schools that already care about this problem are the ones most likely to be the leaders on creating good sexual assault policies. Until best practices can be agreed upon, many victims will simply exist in a legal limbo until schools can figure out what to do with them.

The Center for Public Integrity report revealed that sexual assault victims they followed were sometimes more likely to drop out of school than their assailants were to be suspended while they waited to pursue university appeals processes. For the sake of these young people, here's hoping schools will adopt a precise, fair, and universal sexual assault policy.

What UVA's Respone to Murder Case Says About Sexual Assault

George Huguely playing lacrosse for UVA prior to his arrest. (Flickr / Alan Maglaque / Southcreek Global)

The University of Virginia in Charlottesville had a pretty horrifying case in which one lacrosse player, George Huguely, has been arrested in connection with the violent killing of 22-year-old Yeardley Love, a woman with whom he was romantically involved. The case itself is is still under investigation, but Amanda Hess over at the Washington City Paper's blog The Sexist notes that UVA's response has been, well, kind of dumb:

UVA police have instructed students how to avoid and/or respond to the following: An attack on the grounds of the university. Getting hit by a car. A late-night street attack. An attack by an unknown intruder. An attack through the window. An attack by a prowler. An attack by a peeping Tom. An attack by a suspicious filmmaker.

Police believe that Love was killed by a more likely suspect—a man she knew. In general, women, and particularly young women, are more likely to be killed by someone they know than by a stranger. So why hasn’t UVA included any information here about domestic violence?

Although the case at UVA is extreme -- we're talking about one student murdering another, potentially relating to the romantic relationship they had -- but other kinds of dating and romantic violence are far more common. As I've written before, our language around acquaintance or date rape in particular tends to be rather reductive.

When schools give advice to young women, it tends to be either of the "watch out for strangers in the bushes" variety or it cautions young women not to get "too drunk" and to stay in groups. I tend to think that such "strategies" for avoiding assault lead not only to women living in fear but also indicate that if young women just follow the rules set out for them, they'll avoid sexual assault. The result, of course, is ultimately that women who don't follow the rules have done something wrong.

Ultimately the danger, as Amanda points out, is that young women are most likely to be assaulted by those that they already know and trust. Schools would do well to better publicize domestic violence hotlines and education about how to get out of a relationship that involves violence.

Cross-posted.

Academic Finds Rapists Are To Blame for Campus Rapes

The title of this post should be obvious, but the way date rape gets reported, the notion that rapists are actually to blame for sexual assault on campus is a fairly novel idea. NPR had a really great story about psychologist David Lisak, who has been making an effort to study not just convicted rapists in prison, but interviewing men who answer yes to the following questions:

"Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they did not want to, because they were too intoxicated [on alcohol or drugs] to resist your sexual advances?"

Or: "Have you ever had sexual intercourse with an adult when they didn't want to because you used physical force [twisting their arm, holding them down, etc.] if they didn't cooperate?"

Turns out, one in 16 men answered affirmative to these questions.

Lisak's ultimately found that, much as some people love to make boys-will-be-boys excuses, the men that commit date rape on college campuses aren't so different from the convicted rapists in prison. Most of these men don't just rape once. They rape multiple times. The survey shows that men who are repeat rapists -- called "predators" in the story -- account for 9 out of 10 of the rapes on college campuses.

Lisak says these predators don't use knives or guns to rape women; the weapon of choice for these men is alcohol. They find women who seem vulnerable -- usually freshman women who don't yet have a strong social network -- and ply them with alcohol until they're unable to say "no."

The ultimate message is that so much of our public messaging for preventing sexual assault is targeted at protecting women: Don't go out alone. Don't drink too much. Don't dress a certain way. Instead, we should treat finding serial rapists that use alcohol as a weapon to be just as serious as finding ones that use knives and guns.

Cross posted.

'A Culture of Silence': Sexual Assault on Campus

The Center for Public Integrity released a really compelling report today about sexual assault on college campuses. It both rehashes some well-known statistics -- one in five college women will be the victim of sexual assault and over 95 percent chose not to come forward -- along with some new information about secretive school-run administrative proceedings that are often young women's last hope that their allegations will be considered.

The report starts with an account of a young woman at the University of Virginia:

Three hours into deliberations by the University of Virginia’s Sexual Assault Board, UVA junior Kathryn Russell sat with her mother in a closet-like room in sprawling Peabody Hall. Down the corridor, two professors and two students were deciding her fate. Russell was replaying in her mind, endlessly, details of her allegations of rape when, she remembers, Shamim Sisson, the board chair, stepped into the room and delivered the order: You can’t talk about the verdict to anyone.

That stern admonition was a reminder of the silence Russell had been keeping since, she says, she struggled to break free from a fellow student’s grip in her dorm. That’s the account she gave local authorities, who declined to prosecute. And that’s what, in May 2004, she told the UVA Sexual Assault Board, whose decision she’d considered “my last resort.”

It turns out, Russell's experience isn't uncommon. The reason these proceedings are such a "last resort" is perhaps the most tragic part of the investigation. Prosecutors know that rape is a difficult accusation to make stick, often coming down to he-said-she said scenarios. When the prosecutor passes, the rape victim's often left with the only other option: college administrative proceedings.

Just over half the students interviewed by the Center have reported they unsuccessfully sought criminal charges and instead had to seek justice in closed, school-run administrative proceedings that led either to academic penalties or no punishment at all for their alleged assailants, leaving them feeling betrayed by a process they say has little transparency or accountability. Some of those students, including Russell, said they were ordered to keep quiet about the proceedings and threatened with punishment if they did not. Still other students said administrators discouraged them from pursuing rape complaints. Survey respondents indicated similar problems with the closed procedures on campuses.

It seems that colleges and universities, in an effort to make procedures discreet, are actually discouraging rape victims from coming forward.

What's more, the administrative proceedings often don't really provide a since of justice, since the college or university has limited authority in repercussions, even if the accused is determined to have committed rape. Sometimes the accusations are dealt with in the form of informal mediations. Some argue that mediation is inappropriate in rape cases because rape reaches beyond the scope of interpersonal conflict and lingering intimidation exists between victims and assailants.

The trouble is, that as long as rape cases remain difficult to prosecute, such administrative proceedings on campus may be the last best hope for victims of sexual assault. The challenge is in increasing accountability.

Cross posted.

Teaching Young Men About Rape

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a really fantastic story from this weekend about universities that are making efforts to reduce sexual assault by changing male culture. The programs address everything from how women might say no (body tension is a clear signal) to popular culture and even have some measure of success:

First-year fraternity men who saw a specific rape prevention program were nearly half as likely to commit a sexually coercive act as those who didn't, according to a 2007 study co-authored by John Foubert, a professor who developed the nonprofit One in Four, a group aimed at changing male behavior.

The idea here is right. Instead of placing the burden on women to be "careful" and council them on how to avoid rape (as if there's a surefire way to do that), these programs are telling men that they need to be accountable for the actions they take. It's reassuring that these programs are getting implemented at the collegiate level, the time in women's life when they are most likely to be victim to a date or acquaintance rape. But there are programs that address men at a younger age.

Men Can Stop Rape is a D.C.-based program that works with high school students to make them more aware of what rape is, to back of when women reject advances, and how to open the discussion up about rape with friends. The program is unique because it focuses on a male mentoring program. Unfortunately the best way to teach these young men is to hear about showing respect for women from other men.

The best way to change men's misconceptions about rape is to start early. I'd almost argue that high school is even too late, and that when public schools teach the "birds and the bees" they should also be taught some hard lessons about how rape seeps into our culture. It's important to challenge it, not meet it with indifference.

LAPD Fails to Test Rape Kits

The fact that LAPD could not get it together (of course, their excuse is funding) to test more than 200 rape kits for DNA evidence within the 10-year limitation is pretty horrible. So few cases of rape are reported, let alone prosecuted. It's really depressing to know that if you live in Los Angeles and you get raped, the most likely course of action on the part of the authorities is nothing.

An Update on Sexual Assault in the Military

Via Jezebel, the The Wall Street Journal reports that the Army is taking new approaches to the rising problem of sexual assault in the military. A new set of data from the Pentagon puts the rate of sexual assault at 2.6 per 1,000 soldiers, but other reports show the figure to be much higher than that. And even the higher number, which would indicate that nearly 7 percent of female soldiers are victims of an assault, is almost certainly lower than the reality, given the extent to which sexual assaults are underreported.

People who work on this issue are optimistic about the leadership shown by new Army Secretary Pete Geren, who even co-authored an essay on the subject recently in the Army Times that called for putting increased resources and attention toward victims and preventative measures to stop sexual assault from happening in the first place. Additionally, there’s been some increased pressure lately from Congress through hearings on the subject.

But Geren and others like him have a long way to go in reversing a sickening upswing in sexual assault. As the WSJ article notes, “[S]ome female veterans say the Army’s macho culture has enabled soldiers to behave in ways that would be unacceptable in the civilian world.” It’s weird to think that an entire industry has a whole different set of social standards. If such culture is encouraged and allowed to flourish, it becomes much harder to crack down on unacceptable behavior.

Since the military is so hierarchical, it’s important for commanding officers to take the lead in opposing sexual assault, but by the same token, it creates problems when it is the commanding officers who are doing the assaulting. Female soldiers are reluctant to report their superiors as perpetrators of an assault. It’s a complicated issue, but the best thing to do is to make it a real priority. From there, the military can begin to address some of the problems.

Cross posted on Pushback.

Charging for Rape Kits in Wasilla, Alaska

Via Mike Tomasky, apparently during Sarah Palin’s reign as mayor of Wasilla the hospital had a policy of charging victims for rape kits:

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

The thing is this is actually a fairly common practice around the country and doesn’t really have anything to do with Sarah Palin or Wasilla. This is a real problem in this country. Yes, it’s linked to the fact that people have to pay for medical care in this country whether they can afford it or not. But the fact of the matter is, if you are a rape victim, that event will cost you. It will cost you in medical bills, therapy, and legal fees if you choose to press charges. This shouldn’t be the policy in Wasilla and it shouldn’t be the policy anywhere in this country.

Cross posted at Pushback.

Whitley Speaks

In my column for RH Reality Check last week I reported that Dr. Kaye Whitley, the head of the Department of Defense's program on sexual assault, refused to appear before the House Oversight Committee despite the fact that the committee had issued a subpoena. Today, committee announced that the DoD has now agreed to let Whitley testify:

Yesterday, Chairman Waxman, Subcommittee Chairman Tierney, and Ranking Members Davis and Shays sent a letter [PDF] to Defense Secretary Gates seeking compliance with a subpoena of Dr. Kaye Whitley, who was instructed by her superiors not to appear at a July 31, 2008, hearing on sexual assault in the military, despite being under subpoena to do so.

Today, Defense Department officials notified Committee staff that Secretary Gates has agreed to comply with the Committee’s subpoena and make Dr. Whitley available to testify.

Slaughter's Statement on Sexual Assault

Rep. Louise Slaughter writes on HuffPo about the lack of cooperation from the DoD on sexual assault in the military:

Kaye Whitley, director of the Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, had been subpoenaed to testify at Thursday's hearing, but apparently Department of Defense officials instructed her to stay away from the hearing.

I am very disturbed by the DoD's resistance to Congressional oversight on sexual assault. The DoD's decision to keep Dr. Whitley from testifying undermines the progress the Pentagon has made in addressing sexual assault by suggesting that there is something to hide.

I reported on the hearing for RH Reality Check here.

Sexual Assault in the Military

Today over at RH Reality Check I have my report on the hearing the Oversight subcommittee held last week on sexual assault in the military. Here's a snippet:

Heartbreaking stories of sexual assault perpetrated against female soldiers and military contractors, including those of Maria Lauterbach, Jamie Leigh Jones, and Lavena Johnson, have shown that women in the military face risk harassment, rape, and even murder.

At an oversight hearing on sexual assault held by the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs last Thursday, Mary Lauterbach, the mother of Maria, and Ingrid Torres, a victim of sexual assault and an employee of the American Red Cross working with military bases, were called to testify. The subcommittee had also subpoenaed Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SARPO) office, and invited Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary for defense, to testify.

But Whitley didn't appear before the committee. When Subcommittee Chairman John Tierney (D-MA) inquired why Whitley hadn't shown, Dominguez said he instructed her not to testify before the committee. Tierney and Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) noted that it was illegal for Whitley not to appear before the committee with a subpoena. "Dr. Whitley is in serious legal jeopardy," Tierney said. "This is an unacceptable position for the Department to take." As a result, he dismissed Dominguez before Dominguez even delivered his testimony.

Go ahead and read the whole thing.

When a Rape is a Rape

Via Cara at Feministe. (Her post is excellent so you should read the whole thing.) A Maryland court rule that it is indeed a rape when someone continue shaving sex with someone after they say "stop" or "no." The headline on this story? "Definition of rape widened."

Cross posted.

Sexual Assault Among Military Contractors

The Nation has a compelling article about Lisa Smith* who has come forward with another incident of sexual assault while working in Iraq for a military contractor. The problems with reporting sexual assault in these companies is explained well here:

Take Jamie Leigh Jones's case, for example. ... The first is the battle to have the perpetrators prosecuted in criminal court--which, because of Order 17, may be nearly impossible. According to the order, imposed by Paul Bremer, US defense contractors in Iraq cannot be prosecuted in the Iraqi criminal justice system. While they can technically be tried in US federal court, the Justice Department has shown no interest in prosecuting her case. In fact, for more than two years now, the DOJ has brought no criminal charges in the matter. Representative Ted Poe, a Texas Republican who has taken up Jones's cause, reports that federal agencies refuse to discuss the status of the investigation; meanwhile, in December, the DOJ refused to send a representative to the related Congressional hearing on the matter.

Unfortunately, in the interest of "national security," women who sign up for military contract work end up signing away their right to a jury trial and end up trapped and unable to receive justice for such instances of assault. At what point is a corporate contract worth more than the physical and emotional safety of these women?

* Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

Cross posted.