By: SFC Stephanie Kalota, Ret.
For some that are military sexual trauma survivors and those have worked for the program, it is not surprising how much of an uproar the case of Vanessa Guillen received. While there have been Congressional hearings, new policies adopted, and new training implemented, sexual harassment and sexual assault is still very prominent in the military working environment.
Sadly, the changes made following the 2013 Congressional hearings on sexual assault were not enough gain the trust of sexual assault and harassment victims. This can be shown by statistics alone. What is mostly overlooked is sexual harassment, but what leaders forget is that out of all women assaulted, 1 in 5 were sexually harassed first. The acceptance of sexual harassment in the workplace, especially by leadership, also breeds a high-risk environment for sexual assault and decreased the likelihood that the victims would report.
· In fiscal year 2018, only 1444 (932 formal and 512 informal) sexual harassment complaints were filed for the entire U.S. Military.
· 52,231.8 women in FY18 were estimated to be sexually harassed – that is 24.2% of all the women in the military.
· 68,580.792 men in FY18 were estimated to be sexually harassed – that is 6.3% of all the men in the military.
· Only 1.2% of the sexual harassment victims filed a complaint.· In FY19, DOD requested case management group on retaliation data. 57 cases were studied, and in this study 73% of the alleged retaliators was a superior in their chain of command.
It is clear by the above statistics that the victims do not trust the chain of command to properly handle their cases. Focus group participants indicated that Service members view their unit commanders as the primary drivers behind encouraging reporting, ensuring training within the unit, and providing perspective on why sexual assault is a readiness issue. Participants concluded that when commanders do not emphasize the importance of the sexual assault program, the unit’s collective emphasis falters.
What the military is concerned about are attrition rates and maintaining their numbers. The attrition rate across the services range between 11 to 14% each. Women are more likely to attrite, be between E1-E4, and under the age of 26. The exact target group for sexual harassment and sexual assault. One of the ways to maintain positive manning numbers could be to reduce the sexual harassment and assault in the military, if anything protecting the victims could be enough.
FY19’s focus group feedback indicates that Service members continue to struggle to fully define what constitutes sexual harassment. Participants stated that sexual harassment is perception-based, and that male and female Service members define sexual harassment differently. When sexual harassment occurs, participants perceived that these offensive behaviors are not always confronted or addressed. Service members suggest that this reaction may be attributed to not wanting to jeopardize the career of a higher ranking or better performing Service member. This also may result in leadership placing more care in the subject’s future than the victim. Participants expressed an understanding that tolerance of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior within units diminishes peers’ trust in each other and may increase risk for sexual assault. Then the understanding of sexual harassment will vary between leadership.
The sexual assault statistics are not much better. The Department of Defense estimated that there were nearly 20,500 sexual assaults against service members in fiscal year 2018.
· 7 out of 10 service members did not report their assault in an “unrestricted” (actionable) manner to their chain of command, showing a severe lack of confidence in the current system.
· Of those 30% who were brave enough to make an unrestricted report, approximately 64% of them told the Department of Defense that they had experienced some form of retaliation for reporting.
· The unrestricted reporting has only increased by 7% since FY14.For FY19, only 31% of cases considered for court martial were submitted to court martial proceedings. This has unfortunately decreased from FY13 when 39% would not be referred to court martial proceedings (the highest percentage in a decade). The most troubling part is that the court martial avenue has decreased since the new sexual assault policies have been implemented in FY14. Just 10% of all cases ended in conviction. It is clear by the above statistics that the victims do not trust the chain of command to properly handle their cases. Focus group participants indicated that Service members view their unit commanders as the primary drivers behind encouraging reporting, ensuring training within the unit, and providing perspective on why sexual assault is a readiness issue. Participants concluded that when commanders do not emphasize the importance of the sexual assault program, the unit’s collective emphasis falters.
Since the social media outpouring of survivor stories, it has been made clear that policies need to change. As a former sexual assault response coordinator, I have thought long and hard about how the military can gain the trust of survivors, protect them, and maintain standards on all investigative and punitive actions on the perpetrators. Everyone always think about what they would do if they were in control, and the following is what I would do if I could change things.
· A new command is created in every service to specialize only in the Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Program. All victim advocates and sexual assault response coordinators are assigned to it, and the command report directly to the Service Commanders. A new job is also created and assigned to the command, this one would be trained in sexual harassment issues, conducting investigations, and assisting unit commanders with an informal sexual harassment complaint. Currently in some cases, victim advocates are pulling double duty as an additional duty. They are assigned underneath the same command. So, if victims fear retaliation, they would less likely speak to the someone that falls under the same command.
· All investigations for formal sexual harassment complaints must be investigated by outside the chain of command. Currently, the investigators assigned to handle sexual harassment cases are typically young and inexperienced.· The decision-making responsibility for unrestricted sexual assault cases and formal sexual harassment complaints are removed from the chain of command and that the subjects are submitted for UCMJ action.· Due to the probability of retaliation from inside the command, the victim and the subject must be removed from the unit and reassigned until all everything is completed. This applies for both formal sexual harassment complaints and sexual assault cases.
· No contact orders must be issued between victim and subject upon complaint or unrestricted report.
· Upon report of retaliation, if it is a superior, he or she is immediately suspended from command or superior position.
· Reports of retaliation are filed through the Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Program and the Inspector General, and investigations are completed by the Inspector General. The decision-making responsibility is removed from the chain of command.
There have been a lot of resistance on removing the responsibility from the commander. During the 2013 congressional review of military sexual assault, all bills that included that action were denied. As you can see by the statistics for the years following the congressional review, the prevalence of sexual harassment or assault have not decreased, and the reporting has only slowly increased.
The issue with maintaining the responsibility to the commander is that he or she is minimally trained in criminal justice, and that the commander is subject to mishandling the case. When a victim experiences the mishandling of the case, he or she will feel trapped with no other options. At this time, all service members are trained (annually or more) that he or she can report sexual assault or sexual harassment to outside the command. Yet this policy has not given the victims confidence in the system, this is probably because the report and complaints will make it back to the command and possibly make it back to the victim’s superiors.
While I expect flack for my beliefs and statements, but it has been 7 years since each of the military service generals testified that their commanders should have the responsibility to maintain good order and discipline. By the statistics, it is clear that there is not good order and discipline when sexual harassment and sexual assault is as rampant as it is shown in the statistics.