November 4, 2015
New Report Suggests Pentagon Underreporting Male-On-Male Military Rape
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A new study by the American Psychological Association finds the Pentagon is underreporting the number of male-on-male rapes in the military, due to the stigma associated with those sexual assaults.
"Rates of military sexual trauma among men who served in the military may be as much as 15 times higher than has been previously reported, largely because of barriers associated with stigma, beliefs in myths about male rape, and feelings of helplessness," the study states.
The APA report, which was released Tuesday, is based on the responses of 180 anonymous veterans.
According to the Washington Times, the most recent Pentagon sexual assault report, which was conducted by the Rand Corp in 2014, discovered that about 12,000 men said they were sexually assaulted. Of the 12,000 reports, 3,850 reported rape or "penetrative" attacks.
The report's definition of sexual assault means the men were raped, experienced unwanted sexual contact or someone attempted to commit those crimes.
The APA report claims that men are still unwilling to report they have been sexually assaulted. It suggests that as many as 180,000 men are assaulted every year and up to 60,000 are raped.
The new study also lists reasons as to why both men and woman may be hesitant to report the sexual assaults, such as "fear of not being believed, self-blame, embarrassment and shame, and concerns about confidentiality."
The study also found: "Male veterans who reported being sexually assaulted while serving their country suffered more severe symptoms of PTSD and depression, had higher rates of suicidal thoughts and were more likely to enroll in outpatient mental health treatment than those who were not assaulted."
As LGBTQ Nation points out, the Pentagon reported in 2013 that 26,000 military members were victims of sexual assaults in a year and 14,000 of them were men.
