New Rochelle, NY, March 18, 2014–Recent high-profile cases have drawn attention to the problem of sexual assault in the U.S. military, the effects on survivors, and the actions and response of military leadership. Issues such as why there is more sexual assault in the military than in the general population, why it is under-reported, and what preventive approaches should the military adopt are explored in a provocative Roundtable Discussion published in the preview issue of Violence and Gender, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website at http://www.liebertpub.com/vio.
Roundtable participants Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Violence and Gender and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigator Analyst (ret.), Christopher Kilmartin, United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), and Colonel Jeffery Peterson, Center for Naval Analyses (Alexandria, VA), discuss specific factors that likely contribute to the sexual assault problem, including the acceptance of bullying in American culture, and an overall greater risk for sexual assault among people who join the military due to more previous experience with sexual assault than the general population, both as offenders and as survivors.
"From the battlefield to Congress, sexual assault in the military is viewed as one of the most concerning criminal problems we face today," says Dr. O'Toole. "Sexual offenders in the military wear the same uniform but victimize innocent men and women who work alongside them to serve their country. As a society we should be outraged at this behavior and want answers. I think we give you some of those answers in this Roundtable Discussion."
Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence.
(Photo Credit: ©2014 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers)