Sexual assault in the United States military

In the United States military service, there is reports of thousands of incidents that happen yearly related to sexual harassment or assault, and numerous that have never been reported. Sexual assault is not something that just happens in the Army (as many may think) it happens worldwide and becomes more and more of a serious matter. According to The Pentagon, a recorded 20,500 sexual assault cases were reported in 2018 across all military services. The Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention Program was implemented into the Army in September 2008, to help eliminate both future and current incidents involving sexual harassment/assault, through awareness, proper training, and reporting of incidents. The purpose of this report will discuss the reasons why the number of SHARP incidents continue to rise and what the Army is implementing to help prevent cases to continue to rise and what we can do to help stop sexual assaults/harassment incidents in our Army.

Sometimes when sexual assault/harassment happens, the individual who committed the crime does not even know it. In 2018, 0.7% of males, and 6.2% of females experienced sexual assault/harassment between the age of 17 to 24 according to the pentagon. That signifies that males are usually the ones committing those assaults. The reason for that since the beginning of time, males tend to assert their dominance, size individuals up because it shows masculinity, to some men it could seem relatable, but to females or certain individuals it could be seen as harassment. The Army’s current training to stop crimes related to sexual assault/harassment include monthly briefs with information coming from AR 600-20 to troops, a sharp hotline that can be called at any time for any assistance and the Army is training NCO’s to enforce the prevention on a day-to-day basis. Do I believe sexual assault can be ended for good? Absolutely not, people come from different walks of life throughout the world. There is evil out there that sometimes can never be noticed by the normal person, individuals that experienced assault/harassment are sometimes scared to come forward because of embarrassment, or they just do not know how to address the issue, that is why I believe there will never be an end to sexual related crimes, but it can be reduced, threw people working together and programs such as the SHARP program in the Army.

The Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention Program since its establishment has educated many soldiers, has helped individuals who are scared to come forward and seek help, which with that gives piece of mind to our organization, knowing the Army takes care of their soldiers no matter the circumstance. Sexual assault/harassment will never end but if everyone works together, we remain professional and take care of yourself, your fellow battle buddies and people in your community we can make a huge impact in our organization, and always remember “A voice unheard is an army defeated”.