Women Soldiers Face Stronger History of Sexual Violence

Newswise — Sexual trauma, such as rape or attempted sexual assault, is a common experience for women as they grow up, according to a study co-authored by an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researcher and an Air Force officer.

Even though 75 percent of the rapes occurred while the women and their perpetrators were civilians, the lifetime rate of rape among women in the military was twice that of civilian women, according to the study which focused on women serving active duty in the U.S. Air Force.

IUPUI Professor James G. Daley and co-researcher U.S. Air Force Colonel Deborah J. Bostock studied 2,018 Air Force women who completed a telephone survey answering questions about incidents of rape, sexual assault or molestation, attempted sexual assault or sexual harassment.

Results of the study are printed in the September 2007 issue of Violence Against Women: An International, Interdisciplinary Journal in an article titled "Lifetime and Current Sexual Assault and Harassment Victimization Rates of Active-Duty United States Air Force Women."

"The most significant finding of our study was that nearly half of Air Force military women have a history of rape, molestation, or attempted sexual assault, most of which occurred before joining the military," Daley says. "In other words, sexual trauma appears to be common as women grow up." "The second significant finding is that the rate of rape among the women in our study was 28 percent, twice the lifetime prevalence rate of 13 percent in a comparable civilian study."

Daley's and Bostock's findings raise issues about whether more survivors of sexual trauma might be prone to join the military. The study points to a need for policy changes supporting outreach and prevention programs for female recruits with a history of sexual assault, according to Daley.

"The study also implies a need for better understanding of how women build resilience and overcome the sexual trauma and still become very successful in their career within the military," Daley says.

The women interviewed were part of a random sample of 6,000 active-duty Air Force women who were invited to participate in the study. Under an Air Force mandate, the researchers could only contact women who returned postcards agreeing to participate.

Daley and Bostock sought to conduct a survey of U.S. Air Force women that could be directly compared to the results of the civilian study known as the "Rape in America," survey or National Women's Survey (NWS). The IUPUI researcher and his co-researcher used the same survey as that used in the NWS and employed the same survey company to conduct the interviews.

Violence Against Women is published by SAGE Publications. The September 2007 edition of the academic journal is a special issue on sexual violence and the military.

At IUPUI, Daley teaches mental health and family intervention courses in the Indiana University School of Social Work, including a new course on the military and the family. The class is to be offered for the first time in the spring 2008 semester at IUPUI.

Daley's research interests include couples coping with chronic illness and how different countries offer social service systems for the military, including military social work programs.

Bostock recently retired as commander of the 1st Medical Operations Squadron, 1st Medical Group, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.

Daley's and Bostock's study was funded by the Department of Defense Women's Health Initiative.