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Military

Women play a tremendous role in the U.S. military. I will be researching if there is violence against women in the U.S. military by male co –soldiers in general and focusing on the years 2000-2001.
For many years women soldiers have been sexually assaulted in agonizing and dehumanizing ways by their own male counterparts. This abuse not only takes place out in the battle field, but it also takes place in the comfort of ones home base. Since the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984, more women than ever before have entered the military. The U.S. has currently 14.3% of women serving in the military (Hidler, N. 2004). Although the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, sexual assault of service women continues to rise. Recently the army has acknowledged the increase of sexual assault from 19% to 25% over the last five to seven years. Sexual assault is not the only form of violence women in the military encounter. They also encounter physical abuse, emotional abuse, and retaliation from male co-soldiers for reporting any such incidents. "Women within the military are …considered fair targets. In a recent study, 30% of female veterans reported experiencing rape or attempted rape by U.S. servicemen. According to a Department of Defense survey, one in five female cadets at the Air Force Academy said they had been sexually assaulted during their time there. Unfortunately many of these assaults were not reported when they occurred because the victims feared retaliation, such as damage to their careers or being accused of being disloyal or unpatriotic (Marshall 2004)."
"Of the substantiated cases of sexual assault against women soldiers in 2001; 57% of them were considered mild abuse, 36% moderate and 7% severe (Prevention Research 2002)." Data is hard to obtain on this subject, whether or not the accused soldiers are prosecuted for the assaults that they commit, but it is apparent that relatively few military personnel are held responsible and are...