servicewomen feel military culture stops them from reporting sexual assault
An inquiry into the death of a 19-year-old soldier in the British army found that relentless sexual harassment by her line manager was “almost certain” to have been a causal factor in her death. Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck took her own life after receiving more than 4,500 messages and voicemails from her boss over two months. Beck felt unable to report the harassment, as a previous alleged sexual assault she experienced by a different senior colleague had not been handled effectively. She did not want to be labelled a “serial troublemaker”. Our new peer-reviewed study co-authored with Emma Norton, a founder of the Centre for Military Justice, suggests that Beck’s fears of reprisal were well founded. We conducted in-depth interviews with six female veterans in the UK who experienced sexual violence perpetrated by a serviceman while in the armed forces. They told us that how their peers and the chain of command responded caused further harm beyond the assault itself. This created an environment where they were afraid to speak out. As one participant …