This year, the military’s #MeToo movement came to fruition as #IamVanessaGuillen. Vanessa Guillen’s missing case, and eventual murder case, allowed congressional spotlight on one of the most devastating crimes in our military. But after congressional inquiries, third party study, and introducing a congressional bill, extraordinarily little has changed to protect sexual harassment and sexual assault victims, preventing more incidents, and punishing the perpetrators. There is one consolidation that the Army is making changes after the independent review, but there isn’t a promise that it would overflow to the other services.
The I am Vanessa Guillen of 2020 bill was introduced into the House and Senate on September 16, 2020. Since this happened, this bill has yet to achieve the required co-sponsors have yet to be voted upon. The House bill, H.R. 8270, has 187 co-sponsors, which is 32 co-sponsors away from achieving a majority. The Senate bill, S. 4600, has 5 co-sponsors, which is 46 co-sponsors away from achieving a majority, and 71 co-sponsors away of passing the bill without a chance of filibuster.
Why this bill is so important you ask? Great question. First, I’ll give you a few facts. According to the latest DOD report from SAPR.gov
- Only 1.2% of all sexual harassment victims actually file a complaint
- Sexual assault reporting has increased 11% from 2012 to 2018, which is from 19% to 30%.
- In a retaliation study, it was found that 61% of the retaliators were in the victim’s superior or chain of command.
- The common victim profile fits the exact group that is most likely to leave the military during or after their first contract.
- Which is female, under the age of 26, and be between the ranks of E1 to E4.
- 1 in 5 women that have reported to be assaulted were sexually harassed first.
- In fiscal year (FY) 2019, only 66% of all convicted of at least one sexual assault charge were registered by the DOD as a sex offender.
- In FY19, only 12% of all cases actually lead to court-martial proceedings; so, the rest of the 88% of cases, the punishments were imposed under the immediate commander’s control.
- In the cases under the commander’s control for punishment, 29% resulted in discharges, and 24% of those were discharged in other than honorable conditions.
- From the focus group study done in FY19, those involved stated that the biggest reason for not reporting sexual harassment or sexual assault is because their fear of retaliation from their leadership.
Why do these service members have so much trouble? When a service member files a report, the majority of the punishment and proceedings are under the responsibility of the victim’s leadership. In the situation of a formal sexual harassment complaint, the chain of command is notified, and an internal investigation is initiated. The investigating officer is not a trained individual like a detective or police officer. Rather the investigating officer can be any officer within the chain of command. When a sexual assault unrestricted report is filed, the commander is informed of minimal details of the case, but the investigation is left up to the professionals like CID, NCIS, CGIS, etc. If the accused is found guilty, it is up the commander on which route to persecute. There is minimal checks and balances on how the commander follows through on the punishments.
Why should civilians be concerned? The government spends tax money to train new recruits, pay service members and maintain readiness. When sexual assault or sexual harassment impacts the service members’ lives, tax money is used to treat the survivor and process the report or complaints. Survivors typically are discharged early or serve only one contract without re-enlisting. Tax money would then be spent to replace the survivor, and after the survivor is discharged, he or she will then seek medical treatment and disability payments from the Department of Veteran Affairs. All the while, more tax money is used for a sexual assault and sexual harassment program that has barely worked. The only way to break this cycle is to pass this bill and other ones like it.
This situation is actually very dire because the I am Vanesa Guillen of 2020 bill will die as soon as this Congressional Session ends, which is the end of this month. I implore you to call your congressmen to ask them to support the I am Vanessa Guillen of 2020 Bill.