Why are military men 3 times more likely to commit sposal abuse than civilians?

Question

I recently read a study of this, and was curious if people had any thoughts.

Citation:

http://www.civicresearchinstitute.com/dvr_military.pdf

Actually 3x is the conservative estimate, 60 minutes did research and claimed it was 5xx the rate.

So funny how people accuse a study which takes soruces from 5 or 6 different places which ALL say military spousal abuse is at higher rates and says they are all bogus. And hey for all you military guys out there, please, please don't beat your wives in a rage after you read it.

And funny because personally I never met an Marine or ex marine who didnt beat his wife.

It seems to be like some sort of club for them.

Answer 1

Don't be upset. Those three guys that raped you were only dressed as Marines. They weren't real soldiers. I know that you're a bit confused right now. It's OK. You'll recover (cough!)

Answer 2

There are probably a number of reasons such as

- military members drink far more than average citizens on average
- the nature of service involves long periods away from home, high stress sometimes and this leads to strained relationships
- non-commisioned soldiers often don't have much education and that is a major correlation to spousal abuse
- The whole military culture and attitude is about being as macho as possible, no emotion, etc.

I would say that alcohol and education are the two biggest factors there. If they differentiated in the study between officers and enlisted men, I bet you would see that the rate among officers is much lower than the national average.

Such facts are not surprising at all. I guarantee that the rate of spousal violence in the military is significantly higher than among the general population.

Answer 3

I believe this is full of crap. my guess is that only reason why these numbers are so much higher is because military men live by higher standards. Abuse just aint goin to happen around real men of honor.
If your neighbor was beating the crap out of his wife, why would you allow it to continue? Especially if you know this man is trained to do great bodily harm.
This being said, I'm one of those wives that got her *** beat throughly by my soon to be ex-husband. The last time he did, I snapped, I gave as good as he did, and in the end, he's the one that ended up in the hospital that night, and was removed from our lives by his chain of command.
What I didn't know was that this "man" had done this sort of thing to others before we married. And the fact that he turned into a raging drunk didn't help matters.
So many young couples get married too quickly, and in doing so, cant learn ones true self. The stress of a military marriage far exceeds that of a civilians. This is in no way an excuse, but does seem to act as a trigger for so many abuse cases. With the inability to properly learn all of ones quirks, piling on stress, no one to reach out to, of course people are going to snap. I've been a military wife only for 4 years, I'm only 29, and I've seen more abuse before my military life than now. What I see now, is neighbors taking care of neighbors, chains of commands stepping in and working the problems, till an answer is found.
My guess is these study's don't take in account on how many civilian spouses are still just so scarred to report the abuse. At least within the military community things are always just kinda known and dealt with.
Seriously, what man in uniform who proudly wears it, willingly allows another man to abuse his spouse? I know my neighbors came to my aide, smashing down the doors to stop my husbands abuse.

Answer 4

I read this "study". I was involved in the development of the spousal abuse reporting system back in the mid-1970s, while stationed at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. A lot of years before the daytime talk shows started using the issue to draw ratings. And I also noted that this "study" was published before the attack on America and the author shrugged off the DOD policy as not being enforced without any empirical data to support it. Her study, in fact, consists of anecdotal information. Not empiricial data.
Since the military has a zero-tolerance policy, perhaps the incidence rate is higher because it is reported more often than in civilian life. One must always remember that only one crime which happens in the U.S. is reported every time it happens. That's bank robbery.

Answer 5

This is totally bogus. Yes, some military spoused get abused. But watch your local news or read your police blotter. It happens everywhere. And I'd challenge anyone to show me a company that has more mandatory training in relationships, more available services to prevent spousal abuse, or a stronger support channel for those that are abused. The military takes care of it's own. Not all "studies" are fact.

Answer 6

And you have to take into account that there are so many more civilians out there than military members especially military men. I mean if you take the average or a larger number you are doing to get a smaller number than if you take a small number and divide that by a larger number.

And again, you usually have more numbers sort of in the military cause it is reported more. How many civilians don't report it.

Yeah some proof

Answer 7

I just like how everyone believes what they read or thinks its the truth cuz 60 minutes says it is the truth, theres no real truthful honest way to measure that, they also say 75% of woman who are abused dont speak up, so maybe the other 25% are spouses of military members. Or maybe not, just a thought to throw out there.

Answer 8

im not deniying that it doesnt happen but if a woman goes to his chain of command and claims she was hit by her solider husband then he gets in serious trouble like being discharged and loosing benifits and such.

as for the other half the military life is a stressfull one and the military has the higest divorce rate because of it

ps you havent met all marines it is impossible to meat all mariens how many military people do you know anways i see the study but you cant just judge everyone as a whole thats like saying all soliders are bad and they arnt many are heros

Answer 9

What you are reading is B U L L S H I T! just because it's published, it does not mean it's true. You don't have to be in the Military to commit spousal abuse. There are a million civilian men out there who abuse & kill their wives.

Answer 10

Stress.

I was a bachelor, but I saw a lot of family stress when I was in the military. I think what does it the most is the time spent in the field. When the spouse is gone for days, weeks, months, a year it really causes stress.

The military is a demanding profession and when you are required to go to work you have to, you can't call in sick. If you do then you have to go to the doctor to prove it. When you are ordered to move or to deploy you have to. The longest that a military family can expect to stay at one post is three years, and that is usually an overseas post. When you move around so much it is hard to say goodbye to your friends, yours school and what you got used to and liked so much. It is even harder when you are thrust into a situation where you don't even speak the language.

When it is bad for the family they tell the father, and they show it. This is frustrating and frustration often expresses itself in violence. If you joined the military then you have agreed that if necessary you will kill someone, then you train in a profession that is geared to kill a lot of people efficiently. A mild and meek man doesn't do well in this environment. Strong men of action who can be violent do. Men trained to be violent are more likely to be violent.

We demand too much from our service members and we don't pay them nearly enough for the job that they have to do. You can't really understand that until you go through it or see it for yourself. The military is a huge commitment that decreases some of your rights. You lose the right of free speech, bachelors have to live with other people not of their choice, you have to keep your politics quiet, if you are deployed you may not be able to practice your religion as you want. A lot of freedoms that we civilians take for granted are denied or abridged with service members.

Even the idea of double jeopardy that can protect a person from being prosecuted twice for the same crime can be abridged. At one post if you get pulled over in your car and you are drunk you will be put into jail and no one will bail you out, or even can, until after morning formation and role call. Then you can be charged for missing that formation and so have to face two charges.

The state of Texas doesn't require motorcycle drivers to wear a helmet. But, if you are assigned to Fort Hood and you get into an accident, on a motorcycle, without wearing a helmet you will be charged with violating an order. It doesn't matter when or where this happens, if you get caught without the helmet you are guilty. All military prisons are at hard labor, you get demoted to a private and have to face all the pain of still being a soldier while being in prison.

In Starship Troopers Robert A. Heinlein put forth the idea that you can't hold public office unless you do public service, and usually that meant military service. That would rule a lot of good people out from office; like the current governor of California, but at least if the President was going to commit troops to war he or she would have an idea of what that really meant.

No matter how you slice it George W. Bush’s military career was an easy one, when compared to troops that went to Vietnam, or troops that are or have been in Iraq. When compared to them my own military career was easy (during the Cold War, the Grenada and Panama Invasions and Desert Storm). Not everyone is sent into combat, I wasn’t, but if my unit went (and I served with people who did go to fight) then I would have gone, I would have had no choice. If I had to kill someone in battle then I would have had to do that. The only other job that has that choice is being a police officer, and they work hard to not kill people. All of this causes, and creates stress. At work things are tightly controlled and if you strike a person it is a major crime. So it isn’t surprising that with some families it comes out at home. I don’t condone it; I am just not surprised by it. The recruiter never tells you about these things, they don’t lie, the just don’t tell you everything.

My father was a Marine during the Korean War and he had 5 children. He never beat one of us. He may have gotten mad and yelled, but he always told us he loved us and he never, ever, used his fists.

Answer 11

If you actually read it, the findings are serverely biased. It's put out by a group that "specializes" in militay abuse. They make money off of military spouses that have been abused.

You can't accept everything you read as truth. People skew things to thier advantage.