Military Sexual Trauma in Female Veterans: An Analysis of Policy and Outcomes

As a result of Military Sexual Trauma (MST), the Department of Defense enlisted a team to strategically plan for reducing incidence. The most recent policy is the “Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military: Fiscal Year 2010.” The women affected by MST that report their assault; lie approximately between 10-30% of service members. However, this number is likely much higher, since an estimated 60% of MST’s go unreported. This Policy is vast, and focuses on many areas, some of which include: Prevention Strategies, Victim Confidence in Reporting, Improved Response, System Accountability, Prevention and Response, Statistical Data, and Future Plans. For this analysis, the area of focus was on the prevention of female MST. One cause of MST is the number of Moral Waivers that are given to incoming recruits. Moral waivers are waivers issued to recruits to allow them to enlist in the military, when they would have otherwise not have qualified due to a conviction. By allowing these convicted felons into our military branches, we are increasing the number of crimes that are committed in within the military service. Another cause of MST is redeployment of soldiers to war zones. Recommendations for added preventive strategies include reducing or eliminating moral waivers and decreasing the number of redeployments to war or conflict zones