Sexual Assault in the US Military

A Pentagon survey released in May 2013 indicated 26,000 service members were sexually assaulted in the preceding year, about a 40 percent increase since 2010. While attributing the high number to a greater willingness to report incidents, the Department of Defense (DoD) acknowledged that sexual assault was a continuing challenge to security and readiness in the armed forces.

The DoD defines sexual assault as rape, forcible sodomyoral or anal sexor attempts at these acts. Attention to the issue grew in the 1990s and early 2000s as a series of scandals illuminated a culture of personal dominance in the armed services. The DoD established its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program to facilitate reporting and provide clinical and legal support for victims. However, implementation was inconsistent, and a spate of new scandals drove Congress to impose reforms. These reforms included removing the statute of limitations on rape, mandating a dishonorable discharge for service members convicted of rape, criminalizing retaliation against a service member who reports a sexual assault, and taking away the commander's authority to overturn a guilty verdict by a court-martial. By 2021, surveys indicated the problem of sexual assault in the US military was growing, as numbers of sexual assault incidences hit record highs while the number of people reporting such crimes simultaneously fell. That year an estimated 35,900 sexual assaults took place in the military. To rectify the escalating crisis, Congress passed a law in late 2021 that stripped commanders of their authority in handling high-profile crimes including those involving sexual assault. In 2023, President Joseph Biden signed an executive order to finalize the law and change the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Key Events

• 1991Tailhook scandal draws national attention to a culture of misogyny among Navy pilots.
• 1996Army basic training scandal at Aberdeen Proving Grounds exposes cadre of abusers.
• 2003Air Force Academy survey reveals 12 percent of women graduates experienced sexual assault.
• 2005Department of Defense (DoD) launches Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program.
• 2012Two colonels and 35 instructors are relieved of duty after charges of sexual assault in the basic training squadron at Lackland Air Force Base.
• May 2013A SAPR program coordinator at Fort Hood is charged with sexual assault and organizing a prostitution ring. New DoD survey shows a 40 percent increase in sexual assaults since 2010.
• December 2013Congress passes reforms on military handling of sexual assault cases.
• February 2021The Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military is established.
• December 2021Congress passes law to create the Offices of Special Trial Counsel.
• July 2023President Biden signs executive order to finalize revision to the military justice code.

Status

According to the DoD's 2021 survey results, reports of sexual assault in the US military increased by 13 percent in 2021, which included a full 26 percent rise in reports involving Army soldiers. Shortly after taking office, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin established the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military to further explore the issue. The commission made more than eighty recommendations to President Joe Biden in late 2021, including the directive to remove the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault from the chain of command. Other recommendations included creating specialized units within the military to handle crimes of sexual assault. In late 2021, Congress passed legislation that stripped commanders of their authority in handling crimes involving sexual assault. In 2023, Biden signed an executive order to finalize the law and change the military justice code.

In-Depth Description

A series of scandals beginning in the 1990s established sexual assault as a persistent issue in the United States military, that had come to rely increasingly on women recruits. About 11 percent of US military personnel were women in 1990, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970. At the 1991 convention of the Tailhook Association, a fraternal organization for Navy aviation, rowdy celebrations led to the rape of a female lieutenant and reports of sexual assault or harassment against more than eighty other women and seven men. The popularity of the movie Top Gun, glorifying the competitiveness of Navy fliers, helped to frame the issue in the public mind as one of male dominance and hostility to women. The Tailhook scandal forced the resignations of the Secretary of the Navy and two admirals.

A 1996 investigation at the US Army basic training facility at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, found systematic abuse of female recruits by drill instructors, who shared information about victims with other predators. Three drill sergeants and a company commander went to prison as a result. Eight others were dishonorably discharged or received nonjudicial punishment. In the wake of the scandal, the Army established a hotline to facilitate reporting of sexual assault. Thousands of calls came in from other Army facilities.

In 2003, an inspector-general's survey revealed that 12 percent of the women graduating from the US Air Force Academy said they had suffered rape or an attempted rape as a cadet. The overwhelming majority did not report these incidents for fear of retaliation or damage to their careers. The Air Force identified fifty-four cases for investigation but acknowledged that many more likely remained unreported.

Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program

While new recruits were the most vulnerable, women stationed in Iraq and Kuwait were also at risk of sexual assault during the early twenty-first century. In a 2002 survey, 3 percent of women service members reported they had been sexually assaulted in the past twelve months. The Army investigated eighty cases that year, the Air Force seven cases, the Marines one case, and the Navy none. Allegations of poor or inconsistent support for victims—with some victims having to remain in the same unit with their attackers—prompted Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2003 to order a review of all cases involving women serving in Iraq and Kuwait. This review led to the establishment of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program by the DoD in 2005.

The SAPR program brought about a number of changes in military procedures, starting with prevention training for all service members and refresher training annually. To encourage victims to come forward, the DoD established two options for reporting sexual assault: unrestricted reports initiated a formal investigation, while restricted reports allowed victims to receive treatment without notifying the chain of command. The Navy adopted a team approach to investigations, updating its earlier practice of assigning each case to one agent. However, evaluations of SAPR by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that implementation was inconsistent. For example, all branches of the military did a good job of advising victims of treatment options, but facilities offering the recommended mental healthcare were often not available, and fear of being blamed for reporting sexual assault remained widespread. The GAO criticized the DoD for failing to set up a system to assess whether prevention training was effective.

The DoD's primary means of understanding the incidence of sexual assault in the military is the Workplace and Gender Relations (WGR) survey, first administered in 1988. Initially, the survey was sent to only about half of active duty and reserve troops and a shortened version was created in 2021 that was available to all service members, though it remained voluntary. Results from the 2021 WGR revealed a significant increase in both the percentage of women reporting complaints of sexual harassment and the percentage of women experiencing sexual assault. It indicated that 36,000 service membersapproximately 8.4 percent of women and 1.5 percent of menexperienced unwanted sexual contact in 2021, compared to about 20,000 in 2018. Further, the survey revealed 29 percent of active-duty women reported a sexual harassment complaint that year, compared to 24 percent in 2018. Among service members reporting instances of sexual assault in 2021, the WGR found:

• The rate of women who experienced sexual assault in the military was the highest rate since the DoD first started measuring it in 2006.
• The largest increase in reports of sexual assault was found in the Army with a significant 26 percent increase of reports involving Army soldiers.
• Only about 20 percent of victims reported crimes of sexual assault to authorities.
• Thirty-nine percent of women and 63 percent of men felt confident their chain of command would "treat them with dignity and respect" after reporting an assault, a decrease from 66 percent and 82 percent, respectively, in 2018.

In light of the rising numbers of sexual assault and harassment, Congress increased calls to overhaul the system and implement new reforms. While military officials have historically made it easier to report such crimes, they have not had success in reducing instances of assaults, as evident in the 2021 survey results.

Resurgence of High-Profile Problems and Congressional Reform

Events in 2012 and 2013 brought renewed attention to sexual assault as a systemic problem in the military. At Lackland Air Force Base, near San Antonio, Texas, seventeen basic training instructors were accused of sexual assault and thirty-five were transferred to other assignments during an investigation that made headlines in July 2012. Guilty verdicts were returned in most of the twenty-three courts-martial that followed, and two commanders, a lieutenant colonel and a colonel, were relieved of duty. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta instituted a new policy requiring high-level commanders to review decisions by unit commanders in cases of sexual assault. This measure was intended to address the perception that low-level officers had an interest in minimizing reports of trouble in their units.

In 2013, failures by officers in positions of responsibility for sexual-assault policy intensified the controversy. Sergeant First Class Gregory McQueen, SAPR program coordinator at Fort Hood, was charged with sexual assault of a female soldier, who was being coerced to join McQueen's prostitution ring. At Fort Campbell, the lieutenant colonel in charge of the local SAPR program was dismissed for stalking his ex-wife. In the Air Force, the lieutenant colonel in charge of the SAPR program went to trial for groping a woman at a bar in Crystal City, Virginia. The jury saw reasonable doubt in the evidence and found him not guilty of assault. In terms of moving Congress to action, the precipitating event was Lieutenant General Craig Franklin's decision to overturn the court-martial conviction of a fighter pilot for rape. As commander of the US Third Air Force, based in Europe, Franklin reviewed the case and acquitted the pilot on the grounds that a highly rated officer and doting father could not have been guilty of the charge. In the ensuing controversy, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recommended that commanders be deprived of the authority to reverse a court-martial verdict. Franklin retired under pressure in January 2014.

The National Defense Authorization Act for 2014, setting budgets for the armed services, contained amendments meant to reform judicial handling of sexual assault cases in the military. Passed by substantial majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, the reforms focused on protecting victims' rights and the integrity of prosecutions. As part of the Act:

• The statute of limitations for sexual assault was removed.
• It became a criminal offense to retaliate against a service member who reports a sexual assault.
• Review by a civilian authority became mandatory when commanders decide not to refer a case for prosecution.
• Commanders lost the authority to reverse a court-martial conviction, though they can still reduce punishment.
• It became mandatory for a service member convicted of sexual assault to be dishonorably discharged.

The bill signed into law in December 2013 did not include a provision giving prosecutors, rather than commanders, the authority to decide whether a case should go to trial. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and other members of Congress continued to press for that reform over the next decade. Meanwhile, all branches of the military insisted the sole authority of the commander was of fundamental importance to the chain of command.

Another scandal arose in 2020 that resulted in increased pressure from Congress to implement reforms in the US military. That year Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén disappeared from Fort Hood after she made reports of being sexually harassed by a supervisor. Another soldier was later accused of killing Guillén. Following an investigation into that case, five officers where Guillén worked were removed from their leadership positions at Fort Hood and more than a dozen other officers received reprimands.

In early 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin established the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. The commission, which evaluated the issue of sexual assault at all levels of the military over the course of ninety days, resulted in more than eighty recommendations to President Joe Biden, including taking some of the prosecution authority out of the hands of commanders by creating a new office of military attorneys. Its other recommendations included ways to improve training and education and implementing new reforms such as automatically discharging those who commit sexual harassment and increasing support for victims. In late 2021, Congress passed a law introduced by Senator Gillibrand that mandated a two-year process for the DoD to create the Offices of Special Trial Counsel, a group of military prosecutors to handle sexual assault crimes.

In 2023, President Biden signed an executive order—the final step required to institute the most significant revision to the UCMJ, the code that establishes the military's legal system, the nation had seen in decades. The changes resulted in stripping commanders of their authority in cases of sexual assault, rape, and murder. The White House lauded the change as establishing "a turning point for survivors of gender-based violence in the military."

In May 2024, the DoD reported its first reduction in the number of reported sexual assaults in ten years. The DoD reported approximately 7,000 fewer incidents had occurred in 2023 than in 2021. The DoD attributed the drop to an improved command climate, prevention efforts, and more personnel devoted to the issue. Other aspects of the DoD's efforts to eliminate sexual assault still required improvement. This included appropriate first responses by supervisors and commanders when their subordinates first brought their allegations forward.

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