Actress Jennifer Beals joined a HuffPost community discussion Wednesday afternoon on sexual assault in the military. Beals sat down with HuffPost Live host Janet Varney, former Staff Sgt. Sandra Lee, and president of the organization Protect Our Defenders, Nancy Parrish, who blogged on HuffPost in late July on the topic.
Here's a clip of the guests talking about what the military can do to combat sexual assault:
Parrish wrote in her July blog post:
The military justice system for rape and sexual assault cases is overwhelmingly weighted in favor of the criminal suspect. Last year, there were an estimated 19,000 military rapes and sexual assaults, but only 3,200 victims reported the attacks and out of those only 191 cases resulted in court martial conviction.
Sandra Lee described how difficult it was to come forward as a victim of sexual assault, saying "for a very long time, I felt very silenced on the topic." Lee told the group that at an in-patient PTSD hospital, the majority of women were victims of sexual assault while in the military.
To watch Jennifer Beals' new web series "Lauren", which explores the story of a female military officer faced with the choice of whether to expose a sexual assault, click here.
And click here for the Sexual Assault in the DoD Community hotline.