We are pleased to reprint this press release from the office of Congresswoman Jane Harman:
HARMAN INTRODUCES BIPARTISAN BILL TO HALT RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY
Lawmaker says “a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire”
July 29, 2008
Washington, D.C. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Chair of the Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee, together with Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), today introduced legislation calling on the Department of Defense to develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent rape and sexual assault in the military.
“That a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire is sickening,” said Harman. “This crisis has reached epidemic proportions and threatens our national security. Better training and rigorous prosecutions are needed to make clear to soldiers, and the command structure, that bright red lines have been drawn.”
Since 2002, 59,690 female veterans reported being raped, sexual assaulted, or experienced another form of military sexual trauma, constituting almost 20% of the women seen at VA facilities nationally, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. In FY 2007, 2,688 sexual assaults were reported, according to DOD, including 1,259 reports of rape. Shockingly, only 181 of the 2,212 (8%) reports investigated during FY 2007 were referred to courts martial — a figure far below civilian prosecution rates, where 40% of those arrested are prosecuted.
“Women serving in our Armed Forces who come forward and report a sexual assault must be protected from their alleged attackers,” said Rep. Turner. “DOD’s record of protecting women who report a rape and prosecute their case is shocking and unacceptable. I believe the legislation that Congresswoman Harman and I have put forward is a critical step in helping to solve this problem.”
Rep. Harman’s bill urges the Department of Defense to develop an effective strategy to investigate and prosecute sexual assault and rape in the military, which includes the following:
- Commanders to be held accountable for assaults that occur in their units and provide justification for disposing of sexual assault cases through non-judicial punishment and other administrative actions.
- The Secretary of Defense to review current training methods for all military investigations staff, including Judge Advocates, and implement any improvements that are necessary.
- Notification of local civilian law enforcement officials of any military protective order issued on base to provide for continuity of protection of victims.
- An opportunity for a base transfer once a servicemember has notified her or his command that she or he has been sexually assaulted or raped.
The Harman-Turner bill is endorsed by the National Women’s Law Center.
“The resolution introduced today by Congresswoman Harman focuses on a crucial issue that must be addressed. Sadly, the number of reported sexual assaults and rapes in the military has increased dramatically and continues to rise. Yet the number of cases that are not prosecuted has reached alarming levels. While the military has made some attempt to investigate these cases, it is not doing nearly enough,” said Nancy Duff Campbell, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center. “In this resolution, Congresswoman Harman, who has long been seen as a leader on issues affecting women in the military, lays out concrete steps for what needs to be done. We urge the House of Representatives to pass it without delay.”
Harman will testify on her bill on Thursday, July 31st, before the National Security & Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the Oversight & Government Reform Committee. Rep. Turner is a member of the hearing panel.
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Press Release: Congressman Broun Introduces Anti-Pornography Legislation
Broun: “The ‘Military Honor and Decency Act’ will right a bureaucratic–and moral–wrong.”
April 17, 2008
Washington D.C.- U.S. Congressman Paul C. Broun, M.D. announced today the introduction of legislation designed to stem the sale of pornography on military installations. Broun’s legislation, the “Military Honor and Decency Act,” closes a loophole in current law that is allowing the sale of sexually explicit material on American military installations located both within the United States and around the world. Although the “National Defense Authorization Act of 1997” expressly prevents the Secretary of Defense from permitting the sale or rental of sexually explicit material on property under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense (DoD), subsequent regulations adopted by the Department of Defense have continued to allow the sale of sexually explicit material to occur. Congressman Broun’s legislation closes these existing loopholes in DoD regulations to bring the Department into compliance with the intent of the 1997 law so that taxpayers will not be footing the costs of distributing pornography.
“As a Marine, I am deeply concerned for the welfare of our troops and their mission,” said Broun. “Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by: escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes; feeding a base addiction; eroding the family as the primary building block of society; and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad. Our troops should not see their honor sullied so that the moguls behind magazines like Playboy and Penthouse can profit. The ‘Military Honor and Decency Act’ will right a bureaucratic–and moral–wrong.”
Congressman Broun’s legislation makes the following specific changes to current law:
- Modifies the current definition of sexually explicit, to lower the threshold required to deem material sexually explicit.
- Adds a new definition of “principal theme” which makes it clear to the DoD that the threshold has been lowered.
- Adds a definition of “lascivious” that is broader than what is included in the DoD Instruction on the sale of sexually explicit material.
- Adds a definition of “nudity” that makes it much more difficult for the DoD’s Resale Activities Board of Review (RABR) to approve the sale of sexually explicit material.
- Requires that DoD annually review material that is not currently deemed sexually explicit (and therefore allowed) to determine if it should be prohibited. RABR failed to meet a single time between FY 2000 and 2005.
Congressman Broun’s legislation is officially designated as H.R. 5821 and has already attracted 15 cosponsors.
For your convenience, a copy of the legislation has been attached.
The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research
[In a meta-analysis of 46 studies published in various academic
journals,] Oddone-Paolucci, Genuis, and Violato found that exposure to
pornographic material puts
one at increased risk for developing sexually deviant tendencies [e.g.,
excessive or ritualistic
masturbation], committing sexual offenses,
experiencing difficulties in one’s intimate relationships, and
accepting rape myths. In terms of the
degree of risk, the analysis revealed a 31 percent increase in the risk
of sexual deviancy, a 22
percent increase in the risk of sexual perpetration, a 20 percent
increase in the risk of
experiencing negative intimate relationships, and a 31 percent increase
in the risk of believing
rape myths…
United Kingdom: A Glaring Counter-Example to the Theory that Internet Porn is Cathartic
Law professor Anthony D’Amato, and more recently Todd Kendall
(PDF) of Clemson University, have attempted to correlate increased
Internet penetration with decreasing rates of rape. Since the Internet
is a major vector for porn, they suggest that more porn in the home
means fewer people will rape. In short, they claim that porn is
cathartic.
We have already discussed some of the flaws
in this argument, the origins of which go back over 30 years. A new
counter-example has recently come to our attention. Between 2000-2005,
the number of Internet users in the United Kingdom increased from 15.4
million to 35.8 million (InternetWorldStats).
During this time, the overall population only grew from 58.8 million to
59.9 million, so the proportion of Internet users in the population
grew from 26% to 60%.
If the D’Amato/Kendall theory was correct,
you would expect a measurable decrease in the number of reported rapes.
However, the opposite trend was seen. In the period 1999-2000, just
under 8,000 rapes of a female were reported in England and Wales. This
level then increased every year until by the 2005-2006 period, over
13,000 rapes of a female were reported (Home Office Crime Statistics). This was during a time when the overall population increased by just 2%.
In Scotland, the trend of recorded rapes is similar. After dipping
slightly between the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 reporting periods, rapes
recorded by police increased every year through the 2005-2006 reporting
period (Scottish Executive). Overall, recorded rapes increased from just under 600 in 1999-2000 to just under 1,000 in 2005-2006.
Government
officials in the United Kingdom believe that some of the increases in
recorded rapes are due to improved reporting of crimes. Factors like
these underscore the risks of drawing simple conclusions from apparent
correlations between changes in reported crime rates and changes in
other phenomena. The challenges are especially great when discussing
heavily underreported crimes such as rape and domestic assault.
When combined with personal testimony and scientific experiments,
the balance of the data suggests that porn stimulates rape and confuses
people about what’s acceptable behavior (such as whether to take no for
an answer during sex). It certainly cannot be concluded that porn
reduces rape…
We note that not only has
the presumed volume of porn consumed in the UK has increased since
2000, but that the nature of the porn consumed is becoming more
hardcore. The Guardian reports in “Men and porn”, 11/8/03:
In its hardcore form, pornography is now accessed in the UK by an
estimated 33% of all internet users. Since the British Board of Film
Classification relaxed its guidelines in 2000, hardcore video
pornography now makes up between 13% and 17% of censors’ viewing,
compared with just 1% three years ago…
Military Still Selling Porn on Bases Despite Law (explicit)
As the sponsor of the law (Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.) observes,
soldiers may still view porn, but the military need not and should not
facilitate this.
…[Bartlett] says the military is skirting Congress’
intent. He notes the material also could contribute to a hostile
environment for female military personnel. “If soldiers want to read
that stuff, they can walk down the street and buy it somewhere else,”
Bartlett says. “I don’t want (the military) to help.”
2005: “No more hotel porn for Swedish government officials”
On 4/6/05, The Local,
“Sweden’s News in English”, announced that Swedish civil servants,
soldiers and politicians would be required to choose porn-free hotels
whenever possible.
“In the military, we have been working to curb attitudes
that are degrading to women, which in no way can be accepted,” [Major
General Åke Jansson] said.The initiative stemmed from
discussions with Swedish women’s organization ROKS, which claims that
x-rated movies lead to increased abuse of women and widespread
degrading attitudes towards them.“We talk to a lot of abused
women, and in many cases it turns out that men’s interest in porn is
linked to the abuse,” head of the ROKS campaign Tina Olby told AFP……the military will not stop at just hotels in its drive to wipe out “unacceptable” attitudes towards women, [Jansson] said.
“We have also decided to halt the sales of so-called men’s magazines in all stores” on military bases, he said.
MacKinnon: Framing Torture as Porn Magically Makes It Acceptable
A…magical framing move occurred in connection with the scandal
surrounding Abu Ghraib. The photos of naked Arab men being abused by
American soldiers while in their custody were routinely termed pictures
of torture and sexual humiliation in the press. If the fact that the
photos were identical to much pornography (although mild by its
standards) was noticed at all, it was more often to excuse the crimes
than to indict the pornography. Then a mass-market US newspaper was
duped into publishing photos said to be of an Iraqi woman being raped
by American soldiers that turned out to come from pornography. The
public was upset by the pictures – until they found out that it was
pornography. The newspaper apologised for not properly authenticating the picture.
The photos, had they been what they were thought to have been, would
have documented criminal atrocities. The identical picture, framed as
pornography, became masturbation material that a legitimate outlet had
been cleverly tricked into putting on its front page in another blow
for sexual freedom of expression…
Consuming pornography, with some individual variation, produces
attitudes and behaviours of discrimination and violence, particularly
against powerless others. By extension, the more pornography is
consumed, the more difficult it will become, socially, to tell when
rape is rape, even for some victims…
Pornography and Male Sexuality
…a
particular incident was reported in the men’s jail during the Diablo
Canyon anti-nuclear blockade. While most of the activities had a strong
feminist consciousness, once 800 men were separated into the prison and
prison authorities distributed pornographic literature along with other
reading material, “that atmosphere began to disintegrate,” as one of
the participants put it. His account continues: “Some courageous and
concerned men began to see what was happening and, within a few days,
succeeded in changing the jail environment back to something very close
to what it had been in the camp itself [prior to the blockade].”
Porn and a Hostile Work Environment
I,
for a long time and, you know, this might not be right, but this has
been my sense. I mean, I have encountered pretty much hostility in the
last six years being the only woman on the job doing men’s work. On
that particular job, I was a legal threat because I had replaced one of
the other men who was causing trouble, who was one of the good old
boys. And I think they were doubly angry at me on that job and they
wanted to get rid of me.
Testimony in Massachusetts: Porn and a Hostile Work Environment in Carpentry
Working
as a woman in a non-traditional job (union carpentry) I have
encountered many covert and overt aggressions. Pornography on a job
site is one of the more blatant ways a woman is told that “this is a
male domain;” “Go Away.”