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Professor Eric R. Carpenter recently published the article, The Military’s Sexual Assault Blind Spot, in the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Article abstract:  The American military is in a well-publicized struggle to address its sexual assault problem.  Critics say that those in the military who run the military justice system have a bias against the victims in these cases, where that bias is likely related to some form of sexism.

The article explores that problem and offers a social psychology explanation that supports the critics’ position.  The article explains the cognitive process that people use to solve these legal problems and then highlights a serious flaw in that process – the use of inaccurate rape schemas.  The article focuses on two potential groups that tend to process rape problems using these schemas and uses data from to other studies to show that those two groups are overrepresented in the military.  The article also shows that these inaccurate rape schemas are further amplified in the military context.

From that, it appears that the critics appear to be right.  Those in the military who are responsible for solving the rape problem have a cognitive blind spot which prevents them from seeing the problem for what it is.

Read the full article here.

 Faculty Website: http://lawdev.wordpress.fiu.edu/faculty/directory/eric-r-carpenter/