Thesis
This paper aims to provide a brief history of the ethical issues of hazing in the military. The impact on various stakeholders is also provided before an analysis of the causes of hazing in the military and recommendations on how military leaders can promote tradition and a sense of belonging in a hazing-free military.
The Issue
Hazing is an issue that has attracted much attention over the last few decades. College fraternities, high school programs, professional sports, and the military have all had their fair share of attention. The military is frequently held to a higher standard than these other organizations and has developed a bit of a black eye since the 1991 “Tailhook” scandal. Motion picture portrayals like that in the 1992 film “A Few Good Men” showed the public, not inaccurately, the dark side of command sponsored hazing. Hazing is not in keeping with the high standards of conduct that the U.S. Military aims to uphold and the ethical implications of these behaviors are diverse.
Merriam-Webster defines hazing as: an initiation process involving harassment; to harass by banter, ridicule, or criticism, or by exacting unnecessary or disagreeable work (Merriam-Webster, 2012). The United States Military has had a zero-tolerance policy on hazing ever since then Defense Secretary William Cohen tasked each service with developing guidance. Secretary Cohen was reacting to the outrage following NBC’s Dateline documentary on the Marine Corps’ blood pinning ceremony for jump-qualified Marines (Leppo, 2003). Blood-pinning involves newly qualified service-members having pins or medals, with the back clasps missing, punched into their skin by numerous senior personnel (Landay, 1997).
But, hazing is not someth...
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...ulatory Intelligence Database.
Landay, J. (1997, February 10). Hazing rituals in military are common - and abusive. Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved from http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1997/feb/10/hazing-rituals-in-military-are- common---and-abusiv/
Leppo, D. (2003). Crossing the Line Is as Eternal as the Sea. U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, 129(7), 78.
Merriam-Webster. (2012). Hazing. Retrieved from http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/hazing
Pershing, J. L. (2006). Men and Women's Experiences with Hazing in a Male- Dominated Elite Military Institution. Men & Masculinities, 8(4), 470-492.
Rosenberg, M. (2011, August 26). Hazing led to Marine's suicide, military report says. San Jose Mercury News (CA).
Trevino, L., & Nelson, K. (2011). Managing business ethics - straight talk about how to do it right. (5 ed, pp. 1-148). Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
In Kirby Dick’s influential documentary “The Invisible War,” filmmaker Kirby Dick uses pathos, ethos and logos to gain information and supplementary details to make his point that there is an epidemic of rape in throughout the DOD (Department of Defense) and the fact that military sexual trauma (MST) in the United States military goes unheard, mostly unpunished and needs to be addressed at a higher level.
In 1996, Captain Derrick Robinson, Sergeant Delmar Simpson, and Sergeant Nathanael Beech were arraigned for their suspected involvement in one of the biggest sex scandals the United States Military had seen. According to CNN, between these three men, charges of rape and adultery were pending in a huge case of sexual misconduct against female soldiers at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland (CNN, 2996). Following this incident, the United States Military took it upon themselves to open a telephone hotline to encourage the reporting of similar harsh crimes. Furthermore, the spike in reporting influenced extensive research to examine the prevalence of rape against women soldiers in the U.S. Military (Titunik, 2000). This paper will explore the dynamics of rape against women soldiers in the military and the research done on its prevalence.
LM01, Ethical Leadership. (2012). Maxwell Gunter AFB. Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education (AETC)
The Army currently has an ethical code ebodied in the Army Values, which provides guidance to the individual and the organization. These values are universal across the Army regardless of an individual’s personal background or religious morals. Professional Military Education schools teach the Army Ethic and evaluation reports for leaders affirm this ethic. The Army punishes individuals, especially leaders, who violate this code. The Army administratively punishes Soldiers who do not adhere to this code, and the severity of punishment increases with rank. One recent and highly visible example of this is former General Petraeus’s adultery and the subsequent professional sanctions he experienced. The Army gr...
This book has not changed my views on ethics in combat nor in garrison. In the many years I have been in the military and the over seven combat deployments, I must disagree with Mr. Couch. Instances of unethical behavior are not encouraged to the degree he thinks nor as widespread. Of course, as with any organization where people are present, there will always be outliers
Erdely, Sabrina Rubin. “The Rape of Petty Officer Blumer: Inside the military's culture of sex abuse, denial and cover-up”. The Rolling Stones Magazine. 14 February 2013. Web. 4 November 2013
Through the use of film, Fogel (2013) examines the “serious social problems that exist within and surrounding Canadian ice hockey” (P.65). Fogel examines the films of Goon (2011), Youngblood (1986), Playing with Fire (2011), Our Guys (1999) and Gross Misconduct (1993) to illustrate the major “social problems of violence, hazing, sexual assault, and drug use in hockey” (Fogel, 2014, p.64). Fogel uses the film Goon (2011) to illustrate the on-ice violence in a comical fashion. Fogel connects instances which have close comparisons of real life on-ice violence, however spun in an entertaining way for viewers. Fogel continues his article with highlighting the use of hazing within hockey as well as connecting to the theme of violence. Using the film Youngblood, Fogel uses the film to illustrate hazing rituals in which have become a common practice within the male hockey game. Fogel (2014) defines hazing as rookie players (who) are forced into non-consensual sexual acts that are aimed to be humiliating and potentially quite painful. Again, Fogel uses real life cases to illustrate how hazing is occurring in Canada and a case as recent as 2011 with a hockey team in Manitoba. With hazing and
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the issue of rape and sexual assault in the military. The number of attacks for rape and sexual assault in the military are at an all-time high. Women have recently been allowed to fight on the front line. While this may be a huge achievement for women-kind, for this woman, it is a very scary thought. I am a junior at Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences; a school geared towards students wishing to enter the medical field. I may be forced to join the military one day if a war breaks out and women are needed to protect the country. I would be happy to serve my country if I did not have to be scared of my fellow soldiers. Rape and sexual assault are major issues in the military and have been for many years without much effort to decrease the attacks. I am suggesting that unless the rape and sexual assault issue is fixed, the amount of people joining the military, specifically the women, will decrease greatly.
In A Few Good Men, the defense called Colonel Jessup to the witness stand. Jessup assured the court that no chance existed for his men to disobey his orders. This is somewhat present in “The My Lai Massacre.” Not one soldier could clearly recall what was ordered; however, they were used to following orders that they followed the order to destroy the Vietcong without question (Kelman and Hamilton 135). Soldiers are trained exceptionally well to immediately follow orders that it becomes second nature to them. Fromm regards this natural obedience as an internal voice with “whom we are eager to please and afraid of displeasing” (Fromm 126). Logically then, if this is true, everyone naturally wants to please others, especially those in authority. One major example similar to A Few Good Men is the case of a squadron that was stationed in Afghanistan several years ago. A marine subject to hazing took his life after receiving forced exercise and humiliation from his squad mates. According to the follow-up report, Sergeant Benjamin Johns instructed that “peers should correct peers” (Yang). Even scholar Martha Minow writes that most people do not advance to truly assessing right and wrong on their own until a later age (Minow). This means that people do not adjust to a more advanced state of moral reasoning on their own and are more likely to simply obey an order they are given, especially
In the military, boot camp represents an abrupt, often shocking transition to a new way of life. Discipline is strict and there is an emphasis on hard work, physical training, and unquestioning obedience to authority. The new private is told when to sleep, when to get up and when to eat. He marches with his platoon everywhere he goes such as to meals and to training. Orders must be obeyed instantly and personal liberty is almost nonexistent. By the end of boot camp the new private has become a different person. Such was the hope for boot camp, or shock incarceration, programs in American prisons: that young, nonviolent offenders could be diverted from a life outside the law using the same tactics successfully employed by the military to turn civilians into soldiers. This reliance on a military atmosphere still provokes controversy over boot camp programs, with proponents arguing that the rigid discipline promotes positive behavior. (Clear, 1997; Cowels, 1995)
chapters on college campuses” (Blake). At Bradley University, a slogan was created to promote anti-hazing: “These hands don’t haze”. Each new member in the chapters across the campus were required to attend a presentation about the consequences of hazing, as well as how to report a hazing incident. This protects the individuals involved in Greek Life because it sets national standards and punishments for those chapters who do choose to haze new members.
Drill sergeants have complete control over every aspect of a trainees’ daily lives while they are in Basic Combat Training (BCT) and derive their power from this control. Trainees receive instruction to move at every command that their instructor issues to prepare them for the Army at large so that they understand how to follow orders. Some drill sergeants take this to a whole new level when they use that authority to commit sexual assault. There are several articles available, one of which is a case that occurs at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1997 in which three abusers receive sentences ranging from six months to 25 years and a total of 12 staff members are under investigation (Clines, 1997). These cases highlight the abuses that these individuals inflict upon those who’s care they have direct control and trust of. In another article, the victim notes that after reporting her attack other drill sergeants had then harassed her because of the report, and in effect circling the wagons in support of the perpetrator (Calvert, 2014). These abuses of power effect dilemmas in the form of ethical problems and are two-fold because of the involvement of sexual assault and sexual
Hazing in universities across the nation has become a common tradition that develops mostly in Greek organizations. Hazing is seen in many different social groups such as schools, military units, sport teams, fraternities, and sororities. Prohibited by law for unnecessary reasons; hazing is a way to grow with friends in a closer way than independent students will ever have the chance to. Every year there are thousands of teenagers that pledge for a fraternity knowing of the possible chance of being hazed. People that join fraternities join for a sense of belonging and to meet people with similar interests. Trying to fit into a new college campus can be hard for a person to do. Almost every group pressures the new pledges to participate in hazing activities to create a sense of brotherhood. Hazing is a process that creates a sense of unity, also it teaches the one being hazed about himself and his brothers; being hazed into a group will help someone become a well-rounded person and will help them overcome struggles later in life.
“Hazing exists in any army”(Filipov, A28). Unity and respect are imperative when lives are on the line. Hazing turns a group of individuals into a finely tuned machine where all the parts work together as one. “People who volunteer for the service are subjected to taunts and hazing presumably to make it difficult to become a quitter. It is stated that many individuals compensate for feelings of inferiority by performing successfully in this training” (Bernstein, 1303). The Romans, who dominated the world for centuries, required many of their soldiers to sleep with one another to develop a high level of trust for their colleagues. The troops that defend the United States of America have all been hazed in one fashion or another, which has made the USA the most powerful nation in the world. Discipline, respect, trust, and unity make up the solid foundation required for a strong military.
In the Army, sexual assault and sexual harassment are a substantial problem, have been for many years, and are continuing to grow of unwanted sexual harassment or sexual assault (verbal, nonverbal, and physical contact). In 2013 sexual assault increased by over fifty percent. More recent reports indicate over 6,700 cases of sexual assault took place during the 2017 fiscal year. Even though the number of reports has increased exponentially over the recent years, this is a good thing as it allows proper action to be taken against the perpetrator and helps build the culture of trust between the various rankings in the community. The start of this was in 2008 when “Sexual Harassment, Assault Response, and Prevention (SHARP) was introduced. Victims are getting more comfortable with the system, which in return is making reported incidents increase just