I have a suggestion about how to help instantly reduce sexual assaults in the U.S. military. Round up those in charge of handling sexual-assault cases.
What fertile ground. In the space of two weeks this month, two of the top officers in charge of preventing sexual assaults were accused in sexual assaults. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, the officer in charge of the Air Force program, was arrested in a Washington suburb after he grabbed a woman in a parking lot. An officer in the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention unit at Fort Hood in Texas, meanwhile, is under investigation for abusive sexual conduct.
Sexual violence in the military is so pervasive, even some of those who have been charged with rooting it out are themselves violent. The military just can't seem to curb the epidemic on its own. It's more important to pretend nothing has happened when a complaint is lodged; many are never relayed to military criminal authorities, while others are swept under the rug. It's the victim's fault — for upsetting camaraderie and esprit de corps. Get her (or him: the Pentagon estimates that 54 percent of victims are men) to be quiet or charge the complainer with conduct unbecoming an officer or insubordination.