Sexual assault has always been a sensitive topic in the Army. The creation of the SHARP program has broken that stigma. Victims are now encourage to speak and males are taking a stand against these incidents. Although, the program lacks some training on areas that would help prevent many incidents. The program has proven to be successful and with a little improvement it could be the best prevention program the Army has ever seen. Having these type of resources help maintain the overall Army’s readiness.
Let it be known that incidents of sexual assault have always been happening in the army. It’s possible that many years ago it happened more often than today. However, those Soldiers didn’t have the resources that SHARP offers. Today SHARP offers qualified personnel, training, prevention and different ways of reporting. Now imagine not having any of these resources. Reporting would mean people won’t believe you or no one would listen. SHARP has broken that stigma and more victims are getting encourage to report. This encouragement to report is consequently going to raise the statistics.
The encouragement to report in the Army has been normalize and now males are being part of the statistics. The DOD has reported that 38 males are raped every day in our military. This has been happening for years. It is until now that resources like SHARP have encourage male survivors to report. For many years males where scared to report and ruin their career or self-image. This was the stigma that Kole Welsh described: “I had actually let the assault go, because I didn't want it to interfere with my career”. It wasn’t until he tested HIV positive and got removed from the Army that he decided to report the incident. If the SHARP program would have existed back then the story would have been different. Although SHARP dedicates a big portion to helping the victims, they also focus on prevention training. Improving these training might be the key to reducing the statistics.
Statistics show that nearly 1 in 10 Americans suffer from sexual urges. It is natural for some human being to have these urges. However, they must learn to have self-control. The SHARP program lacks self-control training. Many Soldiers don’t understand their sexuality. This could be the reason for lack of control. Incorporating a self-control training into the SHARP program would help prevent many of these incidents. The lack of this knowledge is one of the reasons sexual assault incidents continue to rise. A soldier that has self-control is more likely to walk away than one that has no control.