The VA has been providing free services for veterans who are victims of MST since 1992 for women and 1994 for men, regardless of their discharge status. He said some veterans eventually disclose their assaults years after their first VA visit.īut many victims don’t go to the VA because they see it as part of “the government that was running the military when they were assaulted,” he said.ĭeViva said most perpetrators are men, causing male victims to question their sexual orientation and feel ashamed. Jason DeViva, MST coordinator at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. In Connecticut in the last year, 1.4 percent of men and 29.9 percent of women replied affirmatively, said Dr. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans who apply for health care are asked if they are military sexual trauma (MST) victims. This discomfort and the fact that men don’t report assaults are rooted in a military culture where male strength is revered, mental health professionals say.Īt the U.S. “Until recently, DOD leadership was not comfortable raising male victims as an area of focus,” the GAO reported. The Department of Defense (DOD) only started addressing the issue of male sexual assault in 2014, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress. Alcohol is usually not involved in male assault, Rand found. Servicemen are more likely than women to: be repeat victims, be assaulted on duty and by multiple offenders in one incident, and endure physical injuries and threats of violence during sexual assaults, according to Rand. Just 13 percent of men report a sexual assault compared to 40 percent of women, the Rand study showed. Men rarely report military sexual assaults, tell anyone, or get care for associated problems, according to a study by the Rand Corporation, a research organization. The most recent Pentagon estimates show 10,600 men and 9,600 women were assaulted in 2014, representing 1 percent of active duty men and 4.9 percent of women. In the military, where men comprise 85 percent of the population, more men than women are sexually assaulted. Hunter’s organization has spent the last three years raising awareness and lobbying for health care for military victims of sexual assault, meeting with top government decision makers, participating in White House policy discussions, speaking at events for military sexual assault victims and joining women survivors in advocating for removing the prosecution of military sexual assault from the chain of command.
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