LIHUE — Sexual assaults occurring and going unprosecuted within the military are a national concern, but there is specialized counseling on island for victims who have since left the service.
Amyn Hirani,
Ph. D., of the Kauai Veterans Center counsels veterans who have experienced sexual assault while serving in the military. It is important for victims to come forward, he said, to receive treatment in a safe and confidential environment.
“Any veteran, whether they served in a war zone or not, is eligible for free treatment if they experienced sexual trauma,” Hirani said. “We are making it our priority to help these individuals.”
The help is not limited to veterans of Afghanistan or Iraq. A veteran of any war period or peacetime service is eligible.
The VA doesn’t require proof that it happened or that is was reported. The victim is invited to come in talk about what happened.
“The good news is that the VA in general, and the Kauai Vets Center in particular, has made it more of a priority as far as treatment,” he said.
The Department of Defense’ 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military released in May notes there were 3,374 sexual assaults against 3,604 victims (2,949 service members) in 2012 — a 6 percent increase over the previous year. Around 15 percent of military victims report sexual assaults, which the DOD says is similar to the 16 percent civilian reporting rate.
A total of 11.5 percent of attacks against college-aged civilian victims are reported — the predominant age group of service members and cadets. The amount of military sexual trauma occurring “is alarming and disturbing,” Hirani said.
The U.S. Code of Military Justice defines the range of crimes to include actual or attempted rape, sexual assault, nonconsensual sodomy, aggravated sexual contact and abusive sexual contact.
Hirani said a sexual assault in the military is unique in that it occurs among men and women who are socialized to work as a unit. They look to each another with a higher sense of trust and to betray that in an intense, violent and sexual way is almost incestuous, he said, and the resulting experience is traumatic and harder to treat.
“There is a real closeness and a connection that is exceptional,” he said. “They are as brothers and sisters of one family.”
An assault within the dynamic of these rigid and interdependent relationships has an effect on one’s sense of personal security and boundaries, he said.
People do have defense mechanisms, he added. Some victims utilize their chain of command and report the incident. Others attempt to cope with it internally and don’t report it for fear of harassment.
“Imagine how hard it is for a person, emotionally and psychologically, to be exposed to that regularly,” Hirani said.
The intensity of the emotional response sometimes causes the victim to “numb out.” This helps someone survive by not being overwhelmed by emotion but can lead to more serious problems.
Carrying this experience into civilian life impairs the ability to function in an occupation, and makes it difficult to maintain relationships with a spouse, family or friends.
An act of intimate violence can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Hirani said. The research is just beginning, but the VA now recognizes military sexual assault as a trauma and has dedicated resources for treatment and research, he said.
“This is not always the case,” Hirani said. “But it can lead to PTSD, just as other traumas do that are caused by combat, natural disasters or automobile accidents.”
Victims also respond differently to treatment, depending on the type and level of the assault. The relationship to the perpetrator, the ability to negotiate with them, and the history and type of harassment prior to the attack are all factors, he added.
Hirani is a therapist and said he does not discuss the politics of the issue. He does, however, support Congressional efforts to take the reporting and investigation element out of the unit command structure.
When this support is refused, the victim finds it more difficult to cope, he said. They feel violated and shunned by members of their own unit and that leads to more isolation.
“When the victim needs support the most, when they are going through the trauma of a sexual assault, they don’t often receive it because of the culture of the military,” Hirani said.
Lawmakers are concerned that only 238 convictions resulted for sexual assault in 2012. The DOD notes that 363 suspects were not prosecuted after allegations were determined to be unfounded. Another 250 suspects remained unidentified despite a criminal investigation.
While in Hanalei recently, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a former U.S. Army company commander, said she was aware of the problem but that it was the DOD report that prompted her support for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill.
The Military Justice Improvement Act amendment would have taken jurisdiction for sexual assault crimes outside of the chain of command under which they occurred. It would have prevented command authority from overturning a verdict in favor of a victim by claiming there was faulty information.
The amendment was not allowed to be heard on the floor and Gabbard said she is now monitoring progress of the Senate version.
Even without the amendment, the Defense Authorization Act does require a DOD Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel to conduct an independent assessment of the current system used to investigate and prosecute crimes involving sexual assault.
Gabbard said the U.S. military is unique among its allies for not placing the responsibility of investigating authority on commanders. She said the chain of command is important but commanders are not prepared to conduct a criminal investigation and then decide if enough evidence exists to prosecute or court-martial a suspect.
Leadership, even with the best of intentions, should not be in a position to influence an investigation that they are not qualified to conduct, Gabbard said. The victims agree that this responsibility needs to go into the hands of trained investigators, she added.
“In no other world would you expect someone who takes a one or two week class on the Uniform Code of Military Justice to be an expert on how to collect evidence and investigate a violent sexual crime,” Gabbard said.
“It only makes sense to have trained professionals in the military to investigate and prosecute these crimes.”
While on Oahu, Gabbard said she spoke with a woman who said was raped while serving in the U.S. Navy. She is now trying to transition back into civilian life while serving in the Navy Reserves.
“She is picking up the pieces of her life,” Gabbard said. “The perpetrator was not prosecuted for the crime that he committed against her and two other women in the service.”
Congress wants to do the right thing, she said, but it is difficult when only 11 percent of them have served in uniform. They need to understand that life in the military is not like a regular job, and that people train, eat, sleep and work together in close proximity, she said.
“Your life is within this community while you are there,” Gabbard said.
