This trauma can take a terrible toll decades later

Military sexual trauma is a trauma exposure like sexual abuse or a car crash. It is what we class as an index event and can lead to psychological difficulties such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Unfortunately, lots of people suffer horrendous sexual trauma. One of the things that differentiates military sexual trauma from other forms of sexual trauma is that it happens in the context of someone’s occupation.

One can’t escape from the culture, the perpetrators. In that sense, it is perhaps more like domestic violence.

With PTSD, you need exposure to what we call an index traumatic event where you think yourself or someone else’s life or personal integrity is at risk.

Military sexual trauma appears to differ from other traumatic sexual events because of the fact it is happening within a very strong culture and often where the victim lives and works.

It may be done by perpetrators that you work for, that you work with, they may be above you in the rank structure and you can’t escape from the perpetrators.

It is more encompassing and can be more damaging. We did a study of female veterans and we found one in four reported experiencing military sexual trauma during their careers.

We anticipate, unfortunately, this may be an underestimation because, understandably, it is often extremely difficult for survivors of sexual abuse to feel comfortable disclosing what happened to them. It is probably the tip of the iceberg.

Men can also be exposed to military sexual trauma during their careers.

We found out there was a significant association between military sexual trauma and PTSD. Those type of experiences increased your chances of getting PTSD by about three times.

So you can see that this kind of horrible sexual trauma is having long-term lasting effects, even when people have left the military maybe 10, 20 years later.

With PTSD, we know the really interpersonal events where someone is doing something to you, particularly someone in a position of trust like a partner or colleague, are more likely to cause long-term psychological damage.

We would encourage people to recognise any inappropriate things that may have happened to them and seek support as soon as possible.

Dominic Murphy is head of research at Combat Stress, supporting veterans with mental health, and a member of the King’s College London’s Centre for Military Health Research. Combat Stress can be contacted 24 hours a day on 0800 138 1619, text 07537 173683 or helpline@combatstress.org.uk