Running head: SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE ARMY

Sexual Assault in the Army: Literature Review

Kaitlyn Mullins
The University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract
Sexual Assault is a crime defined as intentional sexual contact characterized by use of force,
threats, intimidation, or abuse of authority or when the victim does not or cannot consent. The
term includes a broad category of sexual offenses consisting of the following specific UCMJ
offenses: rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact, forcible sodomy
(forced oral or anal sex), or attempts to commit these acts. In the Army, there is no tolerance for
this kind of behavior due to the fact it brings bad vibes and relationships within the formation
and companies. An issue about this is the reporting system, whether reporting it without getting a
proper investigation in the game allows the perpetrator to continue what he or she is doing.
Punishments for the perpetrator is also an issue, whether it is harsh enough or too harsh. Multiple
issues come to question when it comes to assault.

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Sexual Assault in the Military: Literature Review

The Army started making changes to provide a safe environment for everyone dealing
with sexual harassment and assault in 2004. Making programs, they predicted would ensure that
environment needed for all soldiers. SAPR (Sexual Assault Prevention and Response) and
SHARP (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention) were the first programs to be
reviewed and used in trainings for all soldiers and commanders. After a case has been brought to
the public, things get kind of risky due to ranks and position of both the victim and perpetrator,
things begin to be thought about as embarrassing or it is the victims fault.
When sexual assault is thought about, it is a horrible thought. When thinking about sexual
assault in the Army, the thought is unbelievable due to the no tolerance behavior in the military
in general, but it is real no matter how much the thought is put to the side. Then the thought of
how the process actually works when it comes to reporting and dealing with that situation gets
complicated. Debating the punishment to those who harm, whether it is too harsh or not harsh
enough, considering the thoughts of those who were actually hurt in the end and how they
decided to settle the situation and the type of reporting they decided to use, and if the current
policy is good enough to be used throughout the years with the changes being discussed.
Multiple viewpoints are considered throughout the entire research done for this paper.
Considering these questions in mind were the ones used to research this current issue:
1. What is the history and background of sexual assault in the military?
2. What is the current policy in which the army deals with sexual assault?
3. What changes are being discussed about the current policy?

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The purpose of this literature review is to provide the researched information about sexual
assault in the military, its process and policies, and how it is being dealt with today with its rules
in the army and the factors after it is done.
What is the history and background of Sexual Assault in the Military?
The SHARP (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention) program was
originally called the SAPR (Sexual Assault Prevention and Response) program. In February
2004, the acting Secretary of the Army established a force to review army policies on reporting
and dealing with sexual assault and the forces findings led to the SARP program. Later, sexual
harassment was determined to come before sexual assault, so the Secretary of the Army directed
the SAPR office to restructure and integrate POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment), then
forming the SHARP program office in the Army. This program reinforces the Armys
commitment to eliminate incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault through awareness
and prevention, training, victim advocacy, reporting, and accountability. (SHARP, U.S. ARMY,
2011). According to the Department of Defense (or also known as the DOD), there are over
thousands of unwanted sexual contact that occur in the military every year, but only a fraction of
them get reported. Incidents of sexual harassment and assault affect both men and women
serving in Active Duty, Reserves and National Guard, as well as cadets and midshipmen at the
U.S. military academies and because of this, it can effect an entire command, effect the strength
and mental awareness and cause a lot of problems. Reporting the issue is where the problem
comes in because reporting or not it effects a person and that person may be in danger or may be
thinking that it was their fault or just want to avoid embarrassment. The Army today focuses
more on preventing, making sure sexual harassment and assault rather than reacting to incidents.
They provide training to all soldiers and even civilians in the work place that work for the

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government. The Army predicts that this will enhance the military readiness, productivity, and
unit cohesion. (SHARP, U.S. ARMY, 2011). Sexual assault has a greater damaging effect to the
military causing a lot of mistrust to the force which could lead to a lot of misfortunes.
There are a lot of things that should be known between reporting assaults and not reporting
assaults. Assaults that are reported, go through a complete investigation about the situation at
hand, who did the assault, when it happened, and of course the details. Then there are assaults
that go without reporting, and the victim attempts to go on with their life without letting anybody
know, in which this case this is no investigation due to the amount of time they go without
saying anything and giving any evidence which would be non-existed at that point. There are
possibly multiple reasons as to why somebody would go with or without reporting an assault and
there are multiple ways at which the Army would go about solving the assault, situation, and
investigation. Victims get nervous when it comes to being assaulted in the Army because there
are multiple factors that they consider dealing with their job. They become afraid of anyone
around them because they dont know who to trust, they think the person who assaulted them
may have an effect on their lifestyle and job. For example, in the image to the left, there are two
people in the image, a man on the left and a woman on the right. They are both showing clear
emotions as to what is going on in the situation. The man shows a facial expression of
dominance and control with his hand placed over the womans mouth expressing that she better
not say anything. The womans expression shows fear and her gesture points to how scared she
is. All of these things show how people feel when you deal with a situation like this. There are so
many factors, but the real question is whether reporting or not reporting the assault is the correct
thing to do and how is the Army going to deal with it? If they do, will the assault be justified and
if there will be privacy and protection from the victim? These are important questions to consider

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in a situation like this. Sexual assault is a serious issue and the military has solutions to
preventing it from happening. The military has gone years with this situation and continuing it
for more years to come.
What is the Current Policy in which the Army Deals with Sexual Assault?
The current policy in which the Army handles sexual assault it to provide a program that
states, the Armys commitment to eliminate incidents of sexual assault through comprehensive
policy that centers on awareness and prevention, training and education, victim advocacy,
response, reporting, and accountability. (General, 2014) This policy allows and promotes
sensitive care and confidential reporting for victims of sexual assault and accountability for
those who commit these
crimes. (General, 2014) This
policy allows those who have
gone through a sexual assault
situation, to be able to come
confide in someone and to
provide access to medical care,
counseling, and victim
Factors and Emotions Show
the Situation

advocacy, without initiating the

investigative process. This policy allows the

programs to create a comfortable climate to encourage victims to report incidents without any
fear and to be sure that the case wouldnt happen again. It explains that sexual assault is not
acceptable action and has no place in the Army, saying that it degrades the idea of ever working

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together as a team and that the Army uses training, education, and awareness to minimize sexual
assault. The Army wants victims of sexual assault to be comfortable enough to come talk to
someone about the situation, be able to identify the offender, and be open to resolving the
situation.
The policy given does apply to both on and off post and during duty and non-duty hours.
There are different types of reporting in this policy which includes, restricted and unrestricted
reporting. Restricted reporting allows a confidential basis, keeping the details of their assault
disclosed to specifically identified individuals and receive treatment and counseling without
treating investigative process. Unrestricted allows all treatments and an official investigation of
his or her allegation to use reporting channels. The Armys policy wants to keep a tight leash but
also a comfortable environment in which the units still have unity.
In some sexual assault cases, people dont appreciate how the Army deals with the
reporting structure for sexual assault. Statistics show that there are estimated 26,000 sexually
assaulted (female and male) service members (i.e. one in four) who dont report these incidents
do so out of fear of retaliation, a general lack of faith in the military justice system. (LincolnPinheiro, 2013) Those who believe this, believe that the military justice system is bogus and
would require justice to those that are absolutely accountable for sexual assault of their
comrades. According due to a military journalist, Until punishment relentlessly consists of
prosecution, reduction in rank, court-martial, dishonorable discharge, and or jail time, most
victims will not opt for unrestricted reporting of sexual assault. (Lincoln-Pinheiro, 2013) Due to
this and the statistics, it shows that there are multiple people that have a hard time trying to open
up when there is not any justice given to those who had harmed them in the first place.

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Hand in hand, the Army has the policy and the journalist believes that the system is
bogus. One side supports, the other doesnt, and each has its own idea in general. Changing the
culture will take time and concentrated efforts across the board. (Lincoln-Pinheiro, 2013) There
may be some people in the Army that feel the same way like the journalist, and there may even
be some civilians that are involved in the Army that agree with the policy. Sexual assault is a big
issue and the only opinion is towards whether reporting the assault where there is an
investigation or not reporting the assault at all. The Army feels as if their policy is working and
their training is effective, this journalist believes that the military justice system is not working
properly, this opinion depends on what they think.
What Changes are Being Discussed about the Current Policy?
There are some sayings about the current policy, saying that the, Defense Department
still isnt doing enough. (Thompson, 2014) While others are stating statistics that are saying
there are more people actually reporting assaults which in return causes other victims to be more
open and confront a situation. The current policy came into effect on November 6, 2014, and will
stay until 2018, but throughout the years, the government and Senators sit together and discuss
what should possibly be changed. At the moment, there is a discussion about who should deal
with the punishments of the soldiers that assault, the civilian court or the Military command.
When it comes to changing a policy, everything in general has to be looked at and everything has
to be taken into account. How do all these assault happen? What led up to the assault? Did
anybody ever say anything? Did they go through harassment or hazing for saying anything?
Where did this assault happen? There are many factors to look at before actually changing the
policy that is in effect. But For right now, the army is trying to be proactive and provide training
for sexual assault and harassment, and make sure no one is engaging in those types of activities.

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(Douglass, personal communication, March 20, 2015) There are many cases and victims that
open up and actually talk about what had happened to them and they talk about what led to the
assault, what happened after they attempted to talk to someone, and that they believe that the
programs that are supposed to help prevent sexual harassment and assault should include real
victims coming to speak and to address situations better. A woman who expresses her situation
and what had happened to her shares, That the SHARP videos didnt help at all. The program
definitely could have been enhanced if they had a live speaker talking about what happened to
them or somebody that is passionate about it, it would make more of difference. (Center for the
Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE), 2013) Changing the policy will most definitely take years in
advance and that is why they keep one policy for years and discuss changes for later. According
to military law, Commanding officers with built-in conflicts of interest and scant legal expertise
have the power to decide which sexual assault cases to investigate and bring to courts-martial.
(The Editorial Board, 2014) In March, the Senate defeated Ms. Gillibrands proposal to remove
commanders authority to make prosecutorial decisions and put them in the hands of trained and
independent prosecutors outside the chain of command. (The Editorial Board, 2014) In this
case, there are some people trying to put the prosecution process in the hands with either the
civilians or the Supreme Court rather than leaving it in the hands of the military command and
allowing them to address sexual assault victims and assaulters. The military may want to keep in
their hands due to the fact that civilians may over react and in the military there is no room for
error. With prosecutions there are different prisons that soldiers go to rather than an actual state
prison that a civilian would go to. Serving time in jail as a soldier, soldiers are given jobs and
they can work off for a shorter term. (Adkins, personal communication, March 20, 2015) While
a civilian in state prison could do the same but at the same time, there is a less chance that they

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10

will get out of their sentence for good behavior. Soldiers may have a slightly less punishment
then civilians but there are things to consider when it comes to those soldiers. There are multiple
factors dedicated to what changes should be made for the policy at the moment. But in fact, there
will not be any permanent changes towards the current policy until its couple years of being in
effect have been forgone and finished. At the end of the policys effectiveness and everything has
been discussed, then there will be a permanent change for another couple of years.
When it comes to thinking about all the factors that has been researched and discussed,
many things are considered and it becomes a bit unsettling. If there is sexual assault victim, will
they always be in continuous harm? Will the person who assaulted the victim come back and
continue what they did after being punished? Will the perpetrators punishment be justifiable in
the end? Will the victim even open up an investigation to get justice upon what had happened to
them? Is the victim scared to tell anybody due to the fact that their perpetrator is in a higher
command than them, threatening them? There are always factors to consider and multiple
answers being told. Sexual assault is a serious issue in the army but is it being settled properly?
The Army deals with this every day, but now because of the trainings of SHARP, the numbers of
assaults have decreased in size. The discussions between the Army and civilians whether who
should be handling the decisions will continue. Sexual assault will always be around but how it
is settled will always be questioned.

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11

References
Army, U.S. (2011, March 29). Sexual harassment/assault response and prevention (sharp)
program. Retrieved from http://www.army.mil/standto/archive/2011/03/29/
Center for the Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE). (2013, June 10). Effects of sexual
assault/sexual harassment on the army profession. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD5MvyQu24c#t=873
The Editorial Board. (2014, December 7). Military sexual assault unresolved. Retrieved from
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/opinion/military-sexual-assault-unresolved.html?
referrer=&%20r+0&_r=0
General, P. (2014). Policy. Army command policy. Chapter 8, 70-83.
Lincoln-Pinheiro. (2013, May 17). Military sexual assault: why offenders go unpunished.
Retrieved from http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2013/05/military-sexual-assault-whyoffenders-go-unpunished.html
Stimson, Charles. (2013, November 6). Sexual assault in the military: understanding the
problem and how to fix it. Retrieved from
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/11/sexual-assault-in-the-militaryunderstanding-the-problem-and-how-to-fix-it
Thompson, Mark. (2014, December 4). Militarys war on sexual assault proves slow going.
Retrieved from http://time.com/3618348/pentagon-sexual-assault-military/