SHARP IS A POISON
SPC Benoit, John
Class 2-2
The U.S Army’s Sexual Harassment/ Assault Response and Prevention also known as (SHARP) defines sexual harassment as, “conduct that involves unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and deliberate or repeated offensive comments or gestures of a sexual nature”. Cases of sexual harassment and sexual assault are continuing to grow every day in the military, even though, over the years they have continued to add training and education to the soldiers. The U.S Department of defense stated in their 2017 report that there were 6,769 reports of sexual assault that resulted in a criminal investigation on a service member (Ferdinando 2018). This is a 9.7% increase from the report done in 2016 (Ferdinando 2018). One of the greatest reasons sexual assault occurs is because of the abuse of alcohol, our current approach may not seem like its reducing SHARP cases but it is reducing, and we can end sexual violence in the military by completely removing bystanders.
There are many reasons why sexual assault occurs. One of these reasons include abused alcohol consumption. The risk of sexual harassment and assault increases dramatically when alcohol is introduced. According to the RAND Corporation, “In 2014 Almost half of the female service members who reported being sexually assaulted in the past year said they or their assailant had been drinking alcohol”. Alcohol has many benefits including reducing stress, helping with sleep, and making you more social, however, when abused it can become a weapon that destroys not only your life but potentially others you come in contact with as well.
Our current approach to combat the problem of sexual harassment and assault may not seem to reduce its occurrences but...
