Sexual Arenas, Alcohol (Ab)use, and Predatory Leadership: Facilitators of US Military Sexual Violence
| Published date | 01 July 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211044526 |
| Author | Connie Buscha |
| Date | 01 July 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211044526
Armed Forces & Society
2023, Vol. 49(3) 798 –830
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211044526
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1134644AFSXXX10.1177/0095327X211044526Armed Forces & SocietyBuscha
research-article2021
Sexual Arenas, Alcohol
(Ab)use, and Predatory
Leadership: Facilitators of US
Military Sexual Violence
Connie Buscha
1
Abstract
Scholars argue that, historically, military women have not been considered equals to
men in kinship and, therefore, have and will likely continue to experience more vi-
olence and greater fear of violence. The All-Volunteer Force (AVF) may even foster
military sexual violence through sexual arenas in work-home spaces, alcohol (ab)use
fueling sexual encounters between colleagues, and predatory leadership. This ex-
ploratory, grounded theory study captures insights of women veterans (n= 20) en-
tering service between 1964 and 2016. Full inclusion is alleged, yet military women are
objectified and “othered,”targets of sex-based attention, predation, and violence. From
these data, military sexual violence (MSV) characterizes the AVF. To mitigate this, a
renewed commitment to the US military’s historical ideal of altruistic care is necessary
to realize the full inclusion of women and reduce if not eliminate military sexual
violence.
Keywords
All-Volunteer Force, military culture, military sexual violence, military leadership,
cohesion, grounded theory
1
Department of Political Science, Texas State University, TX, USA
Corresponding Author:
Connie Buscha, Department of Political Science, Texas State University, 601 University Dr., UAC 370, San
Marcos, TX 78666, USA.
Email: cbuscha@txstate.edu
Buscha 799
Sexual Arenas, Alcohol
(Ab)use, and Predatory
Leadership: Facilitators of US
Military Sexual Violence
Connie Buscha
1
Abstract
Scholars argue that, historically, military women have not been considered equals to
men in kinship and, therefore, have and will likely continue to experience more vi-
olence and greater fear of violence. The All-Volunteer Force (AVF) may even foster
military sexual violence through sexual arenas in work-home spaces, alcohol (ab)use
fueling sexual encounters between colleagues, and predatory leadership. This ex-
ploratory, grounded theory study captures insights of women veterans (n= 20) en-
tering service between 1964 and 2016. Full inclusion is alleged, yet military women are
objectified and “othered,”targets of sex-based attention, predation, and violence. From
these data, military sexual violence (MSV) characterizes the AVF. To mitigate this, a
renewed commitment to the US military’s historical ideal of altruistic care is necessary
to realize the full inclusion of women and reduce if not eliminate military sexual
violence.
Keywords
All-Volunteer Force, military culture, military sexual violence, military leadership,
cohesion, grounded theory
1
Department of Political Science, Texas State University, TX, USA
Corresponding Author:
Connie Buscha, Department of Political Science, Texas State University, 601 University Dr., UAC 370, San
Marcos, TX 78666, USA.
Email: cbuscha@txstate.edu
Scholars argue that, historically, military women have not been equals to military men
in kinship and, therefore, have and will likely continue to experience more violence and
greater fear of violence than men due to their presumed exclusion from historically
masculine and masculinized professional and social networks (Brownson [now
Buscha], 2014a,2015;Duncanson & Woodward, 2015;Eichler, 2017;Harris et al.,
2018;King, 2015). Rosen (2007) of the National Institute of Justice also found a strong
correlation between rates of rape and alcohol consumption, a correlation that has been
acknowledged by the US military as well (US Commission on Civil Rights, 2013).
Further, abuse of [relative, almost exclusively male] power allows the continuance, if
not fosters, the escalation of sexual violence against women in US military envi-
ronments (Lorenz & Ullman, 2016;Meˇ
strovi´
c & Lorenzo, 2008;Meˇ
strovi´
c & Romero,
2011). This triad of factors continues to challenge all rational, legal, and instructional/
training attempts by the US military to achieve successful, full integration of women
almost 50 years now in the making.
This exploratory grounded theory research presentation discusses US military
women veterans’experiences of military sexual violence (MSV). A subset of a larger
sample (n= 20), twelve Millennial women veterans with birth years 1981–1996
(Strauss & Howe, 1991, p. 36) identify alcohol consumption, risky sexual behaviors,
and leadership failures as primary facilitators of military sexual violence. Their ex-
pectations of gender equity within military environments are shattered by violations of
military law, codes of ethics and conduct, and an absence of altruistic care.
1
They
inhabit work-home spaces that are “sexual arenas”
2
(Allison & Risman, 2014, p. 118)
inadvertently created by the All-Volunteer Force (AVF), environments formerly almost
exclusively male. In these “arenas,”actors possess and display sexual capital and, with
potential romantic or sexual interest, orient themselves toward one another according to
a logic of desirability creating competition and, to varying degrees, systems of
stratification (Green, 2014, p. 27). Through awareness of this web of socio-sexual
maneuvering, our understanding of military sexual violence is enhanced as we see
conflicted moral tenets resulting in mistrust of authority figures and colleagues that do
not discourage MSV against women, but perhaps foster it.
Background
Environments of altruistic care
3
embody corresponding a priori structures: rules,
codes of conduct, behavior expectations, etc. Oaths, credos, and values functioned
well, albeit never perfectly, historically to foster moral conduct and altruistic care in
preparation for and actual warfighting when the warrior environments were over-
whelmingly male (c.f., Milligan & Wiles, 2010;Placinta, 2016).
4
Thus, military
environments represent micro-landscapes of altruistic care (Milligan & Wiles, 2010,
p. 739) in that they are spaces that profess to embrace a heartfelt love and dedication
through a collective sense of place and purpose. Mandated indoctrination of their
residents into a warfighting organization, a culture of cohesion and kinship, pre-
supposes this type of care. Military communities exist as islands, zones of tradition,
2Armed Forces & Society 0(0)
800 Armed Forces & Society 49(3)
governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and traditions of a ritual, symbolic, and
historical nature maintained by a “familial”attitude. These communities seek to
inculcate certain values and norms of behavior and repetition. Such zones auto-
matically imply continuity of the “family”of the past (Jones, 2007, p. 58) and
extension of it into the future.
A military capable of protecting society must be skilled at killing and destroying
things, activities that necessarily set it apart (Shields, 2006) ideologically and in
practice from broader society.Warfighting demands social networking, inclusion, and
group cohesion (Cohen, 2013;Baggaley et al., 2019;Hart & Lancaster, 2019;
Moskos, 2000). The military is more than the sum of its parts; it paradoxically
promulgates violence while fostering the practice of mutual support and care through
norms, values, and relationships inherent to care networks (Milligan &Wiles, 2010).
Sexual interests and behaviors prior to the AVF, however, were distancedlargely from
military installations’and combat theaters’day-to-day operations; sexual pursuit was
a liberty or leave activity. It now manifests in military work, leisure, and domestic
spaces (Valentine & Harris, 2016), particularly troublesome due to innate power
differentials among its occupants (Berebitsky, 2012;McLaughlin et al., 2012).
Military Tradition and AVF Challenges to Altruistic Care
Throughout American history, military tradition demanded non-kin altruistic care. On
the surface, military social contracts and care structures seem to be codified law rather
than actual capitulation of one’s self, but what cannot be codified by law is loyalty as an
emotion crucial to cohesion, effectiveness, and altruistic care (K¨
aihk¨
o, 2018). Loyalty
as a moral emotion rather than just a behavior informs a person’s sense of self,
connection to others, and sense-making processes. Morals are emotional; they are felt
as fact and complexly woven. Connor et al. (2019) asserts that loyalty relationships are
highly discretionary and targeted. Voluntarily committing to a reciprocal relationship
authenticates the value of others to and for one’s self. To be genuinely loyal is,
therefore, in part, to assert who one is and who one intends to be in the future (Connor
et al., 2019, p. 533). Loyalty is capitulating one’s self to the whole. Participants
willingly give themselves, they care and play a part in the social situation, offering each
other assistance and repairs (Adloff, 2016, p. 99).
Viewed through this hermeneutic, the military community is intimate, even fa-
milial, but not without challenges. Military spaces are occupied mostly adults of
“mating age,”which implies a motivation to actively, and perhaps aggressively,
pursue sexual activity (Morris, 1996;Brownson [now Buscha], 2014a). For example,
82.9% of Marine Corps active duty personnel, the youngest of all the American
military services, are between 18 and 30 with an average age of 25 (Council on
Foreign Relations, 2018;Howden & Meyer,2010). The majority of young Americans
serve, at least initially, during a phase of emergent adulthood, a time of identity
exploration, instability, and self-focused behavior (Arnett, 2004;Arnettet al., 2014).
Regardless of their psychologically defined status as a cohort, however, as contracted
Buscha 3
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