The leading cause of sexual assault in the military

It consists of all other offenses in the military which includes the following: sexual assault, rape, aggravated sexual contacts, sodomy and abusive form of sexual contact. The conviction for this kind of offense is hard to achieve since there must be a proof of the act to have occurred and that the act must have happened without the victim's consent (DOD, 2015). The main problem is that the victims may at times take too long to report the issues which means that the evidence will have been erased or the fear of victimization might cause very little or no reporting for the offense (Vallandingham, 2007). There is however some policies which have been developed to help ease the problem but the issue is still not well addressed.

According to the Department of Defense, there are less than 10% of the convictions for all sexual assault crimes in the military (DOD, 2013) just like in any other case outside the military. The alarming facts that can make one believe that the issue is of grave concern are the fact that 14. 5 percent of the women made up the active armed forces as of 2011. The impact of the assault has a great effect on services that these men and women offer to their country. The study to be undertaken in this paper will help fill the gap of finding the exact leading cause for sexual assault in the military with the aim of offering some solutions tailored to the cause. The research paper will particularly focus on the sections of the listed leading causes which include Historical and religious influence, past personal experience, gender stereotypes, entitlement, alcohol, and cultural acceptance as the variables.