Violent crimes committed amongst the Special Operations community?

Hello RallyPoint, hope you are all doing well. My question today is a bit of a darker theme, sadly. Recently there have been quite a few scandals amongst the special operations community. I'm not talking about the occasional drug use or drinking in combat zones, those I understand, who doesn't need a good shot of whiskey to wind down after a day of slaying the enemy. What I am sadly getting at is a bit more of the serious issues at hand.

A few years back, a couple of SEALs and Raiders were found guilty of murdering a fellow service member - a Green Beret due to (in their words) fearing that the Green Beret would report their theft of earmarked money for local informants. Two of them so far have been found/pled guilty to charges of felony murder. Although I do not condone theft in any sort, I can understand wanting a pay bump in your career, drug use - everyone's got a choice of poison (although I believe it shouldn't be relied upon), drinking on duty or in a combat zone, again - understandable, sometimes you can't help but wind down while back behind the wire, but murdering a fellow brother in arm...that's where I can't wrap my head around.

I understand, spec ops people are people, but we are talking about a community that is held and expected to act in the highest regard and standard - not just in physical standards, but in character as well. One thing I'll never forget a SEAL saying to me was that "integrity is everything in the special operations community".

That wasn't the only incident either. A few years back, two incidents of rape occurred, one in Alabama, the other in Florida (the one in Florida was also underage, I believe). Both perpetrators were Rangers (one of them happened to be an instructor, apparently).

There has also been rumors of Green Berets and Rangers going down south of the border and training cartel members for cash. The same cartel members that killed American citizens down on a stretch of road near the border or an American couple at a nearby lake who were just on vacation.

Another incident (outside of the American military) involved a team of SASR (Aussie version of the SAS) who recently went in for a direct action mission and accidentally shot an unarmed farmer who was out tending to his field. The medic of the team patched him up, but one his superiors came over and took him around the corner of a building. When they left, the farmer's sons (most of whom were still children, went out to look for their father and found him dead with boot stomp marking on his chest. The medic said that he knew that when the farmer was within his care, he was stable and going to make it. Apparently that changed when his team leader took the farmer away.

There are a few more incidents, but I will leave it to those who are interested in them to look them up further. A marine friend of mine says I am naive for finding these situations troubling, but again I digress - the perpetrators of these crimes were men that were suppose to be held in such high esteem in character, considered to be the prime examples of those in uniform. Another vet friend of mine emphasized that the perpetrators of all these incidents have "dishonored their unit".

My main question is: what are your guys' thoughts on these and what is the cause of these incidents? Is there anything that can be done to prevent these situations? What should be done to those in the special ops community that commit - not nonviolent crimes (i.e drug use & drinking), but violent crimes (i.e rape & murder)? Should they be stripped of their patch/affiliation with their units? There has also been claims that high op-tempo and overuse of such special units are a possible cause, would you agree with that?

Sorry if I seem naive, but it has been a thought that has weighed in my mind and I would like to believe that these incidents don't hamper the community as a whole. I hope you are all doing well.