US Marines reporting convictions for fraternization/adultery as sex assault crimes

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2013-06-18 17:25

Video report here. Description:

'Several Marines who have been convicted of "fraternizing" or "adultery" say that the military's crackdown on sexual assault has led to a culture of reflexive punishment based on accusations without evidence.'

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"Fraternization"* simply means having sex "out of grade". It means two military members of unequal rank having consensual sex. It usually implies sex between two enlisted people or two officers. Sex across officer-enlisted boundaries can be considered more concerning to command due to the greater chance of favortism, complications from the rel'p not working out, etc. By and large, officer-enlisted rel'ps are not considered a good idea and can result in serious disciplinary action.

Adultery is a bit more problemmatic-- it can lead to divorce which complicates a serviceperson's life (and thereby the military's agenda for them) and if it involves two married people both in the military, yes, it's considered serious.

But these are not cases of sexual assault. At worst, lapses in judgment or discipline that may need addressing. But to criminalize it to this degree to pursue what is by and large a political agenda?

Is this looking familiar? Like the university scene, perhaps? 1) Criminalize consensual heterosexual sex and 2) Presume males guilty of anything a woman accuses them of.

Notice the end of the news clip reports the plan to add more women to special forces. That's good, really. About time. But at this rate, the armed forces better be ready to fill out the ranks a lot more with females, going forward. Like colleges, men will be going that direction a lot less in future once they know what they're in for, though in the case of the armed forces, maybe this isn't so bad. After all, it's high time women did more time in the service and as for risking life and limb, as female servicepeople have been saying, why let men take all the risk?

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest if the current M:F ratio in our armed forces was flipped in the other direction.

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* Just to be clear, this word has formal legal definitions that vary across the branches. As it is usually used a bit less formally in the news and even among servicepeople, it's good I think to include this link on it. Whether the Marines interviewed in the clip were officers of some type and the women they were with were not, it isn't clear.

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2013-06-19 03:20