Military sexual trauma (United States armed forces)

As defined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Military sexual trauma (MST) refers to experiences of sexual assault, or repeated threatening sexual harassment that occurred while a person was in the United States Armed Forces.

Military sexual trauma is used by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and defined in federal law (Title 38 U.S. Code 1720D) as "psychological trauma, which in the judgment of a VA mental health professional, resulted from a physical assault of a sexual nature, battery of a sexual nature, or sexual harassment which occurred while the Veteran was serving on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training".

Sexual harassment includes "repeated, unsolicited verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature which is threatening in character". The behavior may include physical force, threats of negative consequences, implied promotion, promises of favored treatment, or intoxication of either the perpetrator or the victim or both.

Military sexual trauma is a serious issue faced by the United States armed forces. In 2012, 13,900 men and 12,100 women who were active duty service members reported unwanted sexual contact while in 2016, 10,600 men and 9,600 women reported being sexually assaulted. Further, there were 5,240 official reports of sexual assault involving service members as victims in 2016; however, it is estimated that 77% of service member sexual assaults go unreported. More specifically, prevalence of MST among veterans returning from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Iraq, was reported to be as high as 15.1% among females and 0.7% among males. In a study conducted in 2014, 196 female veterans who had deployed to OIF and/or OEF were interviewed and 41% of them reported experiencing MST. As a result of these and similar findings, 17 former service members filed a lawsuit in 2010 accusing the Department of Defense of allowing a military culture that fails to prevent rapes and sexual assaults. According to the Department of Defense Task Force on Sexual Violence (2004) perpetrators of sexual assault were often male, serving in the military, and knew the victim well.

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