Sexual misconduct in the army...

...sometimes starts from the moment of recruitment.

The sexual misconduct almost always takes place in recruiting stations, recruiters apartments or government vehicles. The victims are typically between 16 and 18 years old, and they usually are thinking about enlisting. They usually meet the recruiters at their high schools, but sometimes at malls or recruiting offices.

Shocking thing is that most perpetrators are let off lightly, either with demotion or loss of pay, very unlikely in prosecution.

A weak defence for the prevelance of this kind of behaviour:

"Let's face it, these guys are handsome in their uniform, they're mature, they give a lot of attention to these girls, and as recruiters they do a lot of the same things that guys do when they want to appeal to girls. There's a very fine line there, and it can be very hard to maintain a professional approach."

But what about trust, imbalance of power relations, and the fact that these 'professional' recruiters hold the key to the future of these unsuspecting teens? If anything, the army/armed services should be the one sector of employment that preaches discipline and professionalism more than anywhere else.

See this for more on sexual misconduct in the US army.

UPDATE 24Aug2006

Here's even more

A survey of the U.S. military academies released last year found that more than 50 percent of female respondents and 11 percent of male respondents experienced some type of sexual harassment since enrolling. That survey also found 64 incidents of sexual assault among the more than 1,900 females at the service academies.