Posted on Nov 21, 2013

Sex Crimes in the Military, What's the Solution?

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The Military is know for having steeper punishments for certain crimes than the civilian world, therefore I believe the punishment for rape should be the death penalty. Furthermore, if you are found guilty of falsely accusing someone of rape, the punishment should be no less than life in prison and possibly the death penalty as well. My reasoning for this is that if you are willing to try and cost someone their life under false pretense you deserve the same punishment. What does the group think? How do we solve this problem? Can we solve this problem?

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SHARP

UCMJ

Crime

Posted 11 y ago

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Responses: 14

SGM Matthew Quick

Posted 11 y ago

What's the solution?  Deterrence with swift and just punishment for convicted!  Punishment should be 10-15 years or more.  Do not simply discharge them to be societies problem.

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MSgt (Join to see)

11 y

This right here. The only way a predator will be deterred if is he knows the hammer of god will be brought down on his face should he step out of line.

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MAJ Laurie H.

Posted 11 y ago

I don't have the answer, but that surely isn't it.

Both reporting processes and the system for punishing at the harrassment level need to be improved first. If we address sex crimes better at lower levels, we will likely see lower rates of the more severe crimes.

What we really need is a culture adjustment, not a more severe punishment adjustment.

Let's treat our brothers and sisters with respect.

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CPT (Join to see)

11 y

A culture adjustment is exactly what is in order. I believe that the one thing we can change is our environment. Leaders need to comb through their soldier's areas for sexually-charged material and rebuke, if not reprimand, those that are "talking" or "telling jokes" that are sexually charged. The other day, my platoon sergeant chewed out this sergeant who had this decal on his truck that read, "she rather be Cumming rather than stroking". Now this sergeant totally deserved this because my platoon sergeant advised him the week before to take it down. We obviously he didn't listen and suffered one of the greatest public ass-chewing I have ever seen in my entire 12-year career.

It's these sergeants, soldiers, and officers that need the attitude adjustment. Having a daughter myself, I find it despicable how some of them talk about women. Why is it so hard for these men to give women the dignity that they are due? Men need to stop thinking of women as disposable pleasures and start viewing them as the soldier by their side.

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MAJ Laurie H.

11 y

Excellent points 1LT Jaramillo - if leaders call people out on their behaviors more, other Soldiers will hopefully start to do the same when they observe similar.

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SGT Craig Northacker

>1 y

Good discussion here. A singular moment of definition was lost when the command failed to do the right thing with Sinclair in the 82nd. His assertions were immaterial and should have been disallowed. The question was did or did he not do it, and was it a violation or not? Next, were any command members hurt or killed because of his failure to stay focused on the war at hand? His punishment was a farce, and I suspect he was treated far differently than lower ranks. His case now sets precedent in future cases. What if the young lady were your daughter or sister?

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SGT Craig Northacker

>1 y

Taking it a step further, if the young lady had been my daughter, you can rest assured the Congressional caucus would have heard from me, Sinclair's complete records would be public knowledge, and I would confront him face to face - all in a legal context. I put my M-16 barrel in an accused rapist's mouth when I was in and told him I would be his next and final court of inquiry so he wouldn't play his dirty game on my watch and hurt any more girls.

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PO3 Brenton Holbrook

Posted 11 y ago

Sir, I agree with the first punishment for convicted offender of rape, but at the same time I also believe that you need evidence that will prove them guilty "without a shadow of a doubt." Witnesses lie, so they're no good, it doesn't matter who it is. But, what doesn't lie is DNA. If you can find a good amount of DNA inside a victim then that would be your rock solid proof that something illegal happened combined with other aggravating factors. For example, would you send someone to prison based solely that there was evidence of unprotected sex? No, you wouldn't, but in a majority of cases it's forced so I would say there needs to be clothing damage such as rips, tears, or holes in the fabric. There are people who have been found posthumously innocent after their wrongful executions and I don't agree with that, but I do agree with the death penalty in and of itself. If we can get rid of that one thing as much as possible I agree with your first sentence suggestion. As for wrongful accusation of rape/sexual assault, I don't think they warrant Life in Prison, but they do warrant probably a good 15-25 years if found guilty filing a false report, wrongful accusation against a neighbor, and perjury, also I'd introduce a new charge and I'd call it "Attempted false imprisonment of another."

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Sex Crimes in the Military, What's the Solution?

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