Does Military Service Turn Young Men into Sexual Predators?

[unhappycamper]

Does Military Service Turn Young Men into Sexual Predators?
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted October 22, 2009

Every day, for four years as a West Point cadet, Tara Krause lived and worked alongside the men who had gang-raped her.

Still, she managed to graduate in 1982. She served as a field artillery officer during the Cold War and was attached to the 518th Military Intelligence Brigade during the Gulf War. In what she calls "an act of incredible self-destruction," she married a three-tour Vietnam vet in 1985 and, for the next eight years, lived "the private hell of his PTSD."

"Suicidal behavior, violence and degradation were common threads of daily life," she told me. She survived only because when he put his gun to her head one day, it finally gave her the courage to flee. "Like Lot's wife," she says, she struggles not to look back.

It's been almost 30 years since the rape, and Krause says she still "dance(s) the crushing daily struggle" of her own PTSD: "The nightmares, panic attacks, flashbacks, cold sweats, suicidal thoughts, zoning out, numbing all emotion and desperately avoiding triggers (reminders) -- I have become a prisoner in my own home."

~snip~

The question deserves an answer, and not a simplistic one. A 2003 survey of female veterans from Vietnam through the Gulf War found that almost 8 in 10 had been sexually harassed during their military service, and 30 percent had been raped.


Rest of article at: http://www.alternet.org/world/142942/does_military_service_turn_young_men_into_sexual_predators_

[rfranklin]

1. No, testosterone does it without much encouragement...

The same reason males are more violent in their teens and twenties.

[daedalus_dude]

3. I have extremely high testosterone levels but have never behaved violent.

I don't think testosterone necessarily makes one violent.

[seabeyond]

8. thank you. nt

[rfranklin]

13. We were talking statistically...you are an anecdotal example...

And you get a gold star for being a good boy!

[seabeyond]

18. if testosterone makes males rape, why do so many males not rape? are they lacking

in testosterone?

[seabeyond]

23. you female? this is what you are saying about men? they cant help raping?

is this really what you experience with males? sad

i have lots of males in my life. my guys, two brothers and a father, very macho, very manly men would NEVER rape and they defend female. pigs, each and every one of them.... but, no, testosterone doesn't make them rape.

yes, anecdotal. so many fuckin anecdotal stories of males not raping that it is an easy conclusion to draw from

then you end your post with a snarky "good boy". fuck that shit.

[Tim01]

2. No.

But the military changes the conditions humans live under. People with a predisposition to be badguys may find themselves in a situation where being a badguy is a LOT easier than in the civilian world.

[Zywiec]

4. No n/t

[Greyhound]

5. The military attracts predators of all kinds, it is it's nature.

This bizarre notion that we have adopted about the U.S. Military being some kind of (socialized, gasp!) jobs program is a prime factor in the runaway spending that has bankrupt our nation. A military's primary purpose is destruction.

We could do an actual jobs program at a fraction of the price, BTW.

[conscious evolution]

6. I have to agree

[tomm2thumbs]

7. let me ask Colin Powell that question... /nt

[tazkcmo]

9. No. n/t

[stray cat]

10. No - of course not. sexual predatation is a choice

as an adult no one is made to be a sexual predator against ones will. More people outside the military are sexual predators and no one claims that a lack of military service makes one a sexual predator

[trumad]

11. Served Proudly for 6 years... Sorry---but the headline is bullshit.

I'm pretty certain that if you look at the history of sexual predators....most did not serve in the military.

[Mari333]

12. well my son and stepson in the military are perfect gentlemen

and highly respectful of women in their lives.

[spoony]

14. No more than the priesthood turns someone into a child molester

I think sexual predators just seek out areas where they believe they'll have outlets, and possibly within organisations that aren't historically quick to punish such offenders.

[WI_DEM]

15. happy to unrecommend.

[myrna minx]

16. Gold diggers, cat calls and now this.

Welcome to day two of the Cirque du DU.

[seabeyond]

17. tell me, when you have posters like above stating testosterone make them rape

shouldn't it be something that is discussed?

wouldn't we want to educate THAT man that it is not his testosterone level that is making males rape? at the very least

[myrna minx]

19. The article title reads like a Fox News headline.

I appreciate thoughtful discussion and opportunities to educate people (I have been sexually assaulted myself) but flamey titles that imply that military servicemen are prone to be sexual predators - oops I forgot the "are they ?" is counter productive and offensive. I am horrified by the horrors that women in the military face, but I don't think flamey article titles help to bring productive and educational discussions.

[seabeyond]

20. i agree with your post. minding own business, not responding in thread, until hearing testosterone

makes men rape.

it is a bullshit article. military i know are complete opposite of what the headline suggest

but

testosterone make men rape.... well hell. seems to be the new male of new century. i would prefer my boys aren't conditioned by this male that cant help himself ... raping.

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. My suspicion is that the poster stating that testosterone causes rape...

... has very little of her own.

In other words, it's not a "he" saying that.

[seabeyond]

22. was gonna give you a joyous HUG for bringing that to my awareness, but

on checking (when gender issue, i try to check gender, forgot, assumed) i see undeclared. you KNOW it is female.

then fuckin SHAME on her.

horrible thing to say about men.

thank you. i hope you are right. cause that is so wrong.

[TwilightGardener]

24. No. But it does sometimes attract young men with aimless, troubled lives.

So the military doesn't TURN them into predators, but takes some as recruits who probably would have been offenders as civilians.

[philly_bob]

25. UNREC 1) Not ALL men and 2) predators have preexisting condition. n/t