<

Psychiatrist Discusses Abuse, Harassment, Violence Against Military Women

Thursday, May 15, 2003
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service

In the case of domestic violence, it's classically the husband beating the wife, but not always, LTC Ritchie pointed out. She said there's a common cycle in domestic violence. One is the battering phase, where the wife's beaten and gets very upset. "Then the husband apologizes, saying 'I'll never do it again. He brings flowers and there's kind of a honeymoon period and everything is fine for a while. Then, maybe the husband becomes more controlling and questioning the wife about what she's doing. He gets irritated and complains -- dinner is not cooked right, the kids aren't doing what they should -- and often the battering occurs again." Ritchie added that sexual harassment is another entity.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
In the past dozen years, sex scandals have rocked the military services, going back to the Navy's Tailhook and the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in the 1990's, and most recently, the Air Force Academy.

But DoD psychiatrist Army Dr. (Lt. Col.) Elspeth Cameron Ritchie emphasizes that sexual trauma and domestic violence aren't common experiences among women in the military.

"However," she said, "it does occur," adding that any such situation "is a problem and something we should try to eliminate." She also stresses that there are different dynamics and different statistics on sexual harassment, sexual trauma or assault, and domestic violence.

When it does surface, some civilian "experts" try to make it sound like there's an epidemic in the military. But Ritchie pointed out that it's an unfair comparison between the incidence of cases in the military and those in the civilian sector. The military is mainly young men, and domestic violence is higher in that age group.

In addition, she said, the military does more surveys on the prevalence on sexual trauma and abuse. It is also better at the detection of domestic violence, and getting the perpetrators either into treatment, or getting punished, whichever is appropriate." In the civilian world, data collection on domestic violence may not be centralized or shared across states to the extent it is in the military environment, which makes it harder to compare the two rates.

Women in both the civilian and military worlds may be reluctant to report domestic violence, either because of fear of the batterer or concerns about the impact of reporting on his career.

On the other hand, military women have other concerns. For example, many don't report being raped, because there are so many barriers to disclosure in the military," said Ritchie, program director for DoD's mental health policy and women's issues.
(More: DefenseLINK.mil)
2003 © U.S. Department of Defense.

Dan