Premilitary Sexual Assault and Attrition in the U.S. Navy
Abstract
A prospective study examined whether adult pre-military sexual victimization predicted women's military attrition. In a survey of female Navy recruits (N 2,431), 56% reported some form of adult unwanted sexual contact before entering the military, with 25% reporting completed rape. Approximately one-third of respondents left the Navy before completing their 4-year term of service. When rape, attempted rape, and lower-level unwanted sexual contact were considered simultaneously, only rape predicted attrition. Women who reported pre-military rape, compared with those who did not, were 1.69 times more likely to leave the military. The pattern of results held across the 4-year period examined and after controlling for demographic predictors. Introduction According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, across time and across the services, approximately one-third of military recruits fail to complete their initial terms of service (i.e., attrite from service). Training recruits is expensive; on average, it costs between $15,500 and $29,800 to train a single recruit. Training recruits who do not complete their terms of military service thus costs U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars each year. Recent research has documented associations between pre-military exposure to several types of interpersonal violence and increased risk of military attrition. Specifically, researchers have shown greater risk of attrition among individuals who experienced childhood physical or sexual abuse, among those who witnessed intimate partner violence as children, and among those who were the victims or perpetrators of intimate partner violence before entering the military. We could not locate any previous study that directly examined the effect of pre-military adult sexual assault on attrition. However, one previous study examined the association between pre-military sexual abuse (combining child and adult abuse) and attrition.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA497600
Entities
People
- Cynthia Julie Thomsen
- J. L. Crouch
- Joel S. Milner
- Lex L. Merrill
- Valerie Stander
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center