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Sexual Assault in the U.S. Military

MCASE #1

Eric Fey

PPA 420

Dr. Jennifer A. Taylor

February 1

Introduction
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Sexual assault is defined by the Department of Defense as “intentional sexual contact

characterized by use of force, threats, intimidation, or abuse of authority or when the victim does

not or cannot consent.” (DOD 2017) The Department of Defense also estimates “about 14,900

Service members experienced some kind of sexual assault in 2016.” (FY 2017) The purpose of

this MCASE is to better understand the atmosphere of the armed services which is at the same

time dismissive and permissive of sexual assault; with the ultimate goal to reduce instances and

increase reporting of sexual assault. Using the lens of the Tailhook Convention as a focusing

event, we can point to specific factors contributing to sexual assault in the military and rank

order them. A strong organizational culture of tolerance for sexual harassment, weak internal and

external communication methods, and the resulting power differential from the chain of

command structure created the conditions in which high levels of sexual assault can occur and

are the key contributing factors to understand and modify. Using this example as a case study is

important because it involves changing the perceptions, behaviors, and norms of a organization

that is mostly autonomous, a government entity, and containing over one million members.

Issue 1 - Organizational Culture

A basic definition of organizational culture is “a certain set of basic assumptions created

and developed in order to address specific compliance and internal integration problems of a

group.” (Rana 2015) Edgar Schein stated that an organization’s culture can be inferred from

three indicators - artifacts, underlying assumptions, and values and beliefs. (Schein 1990) The

predominant factor to understand in relation to armed service organizational culture has to deal

with how new members become socialized into the institution. Wood and Toppelberg (2017)

correctly identify that historically, the military’s socialization processes were violent, sexualized,

and overtly misogynistic. They also correctly identify basic training as the key area in which the
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most socialization occurs as new recruits are immersed with artifacts, beliefs, assumptions, and

values. During this stage of development for a service member violence, power, control, and

aggressiveness are emphasized for combat, but have the unfortunate consequence of also being

symptomatic of the type of environment in which sexual assault more commonly occurs. Basic

training could therefore be used as a medium to change perceptions about sexual assault, but

only for new recruits. In order to better understand how all levels of the armed services respond

to change, we can look at historical events like the integration of African Americans and women.

The military typically changes its acceptance values and tolerances at the same rate as the

general public without regard to new, forced changes like integration, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and

Zero Tolerance. (Moran 2017) Since publicly held values are reflected strongly in the military, it

is beneficial that we are having a watershed moment in terms of vocalizing sexual assault to

reduce its prevalence. Ultimately, it takes time and concerted effort to bring about paradigm

shifts in organizations, so the sooner an organization addresses its weaknesses the better off they

will be in adapting to the new challenges that change presents.

Issue 2 - Communication

For the purpose of this exercise, communication is the exchange of information from the

transmitter to the receiver in which both parties correctly understand the meaning and implied

actions. When a sexual assault is committed in the armed services, the current procedure is to

report the incident to your commanding officer. That commanding officer can then decide

whether to conduct an investigation or not. A commanding officer should have wide discretion

during combat operations, but should not have discretion over whether or not to report a sexual

assault; as this is an administrative function rather than a combat situation. Also, within the

armed forces, investigations into sexual assault are conducted internally to the organization. This
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has the practical effect of allowing the armed services the capability to cover up and downplay

the frequency of sexual assault. Since the armed services are funded through Congressional

appropriations, this creates an incentive to cover up embarrassing internal problems to maintain

partial autonomy and funding levels. Discipline is often misused or not given out as harshly as

would be necessary to make the risks outweigh the benefits of committing, enabling, or failing to

report incidents when they occur. Sexual assaults are frequently under-reported or not reported at

all for fear of retaliation, embarrassment, or lack of punishment for the perpetrator. Even when

incidents are reported signifying a shared understanding of the problem, the shared

understanding of the next appropriate action is vastly different across commanding officers.

Issue 3 - Leadership

In this context, leadership is about the superior-subordinate relationship in the armed

services in which a subordinate is deferential to the proper authority and the dynamic that it

creates and reinforces between the two parties. A chain of command structure is essential in any

military to effectively spread information and responsibility vertically and horizontally

throughout the ranks. The practical effect of this hierarchy is that subordinates are inferior in

their position, are disincentivized to question authority, and strongly subject to the will of their

commanding officers. In a study of non-deployed National Guard women, negative leadership

behaviors such as not enforcing the zero tolerance policy, failure to curtail known sex activities,

or failure to take sexual assault complaints seriously were associated with increased assault risk;

at least doubling servicewomen’s odds of sexual assault. (Sadler 2017) Sexual assault is

frequently discussed in terms of the power dynamic it creates between the assailant and the

victim; and is more about control and dominance than sex. Even though the chain of command

structure is necessary, it creates conditions in which power over subordinates is frequently

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abused. The military command structure works like an upside down funnel, with leadership at

the top and rank and file members at the bottom. If deviant behaviors and norms are tolerated at

the upper managing levels, they will be passed down and spread throughout any organization. It

is critical to ensure that leadership roles within the military are all transmitting the right publicly

held values to their subordinates. (Viţalariu 2016)

Recommendations

I have several recommendations that when combined should reduce the prevalence of

SAIM. In order to address and change the organizational culture, I recommend having a sexual

assault simulation during basic training in which a prominent figure to the new recruits engages

in unwarranted sexual behavior towards another service member. This will be entirely staged

with both participants acting in a way that suggests they were not instructed to engage in the

simulation. This would provide an early introduction to the presence of SAIM, encourage

reporting incidents to commanding officers, and include a discussion afterwards in which the

actors reveal the incident was staged providing a learning opportunity about how to handle these

situations. This strategy of increasingly relying on “bystander intervention” is becoming more

common when high rates of sexual violence are present. (Holland 2016) Leadership would need

sufficient resources and full support to successfully implement this strategy. It also provides a

baseline of which recruits are more likely to report incidents to commanding officers.

In terms of communication, I would recommend ending sexual assault reporting to your

commanding officer and instead to a liason whose sole duty is to discreetly investigate these

cases. This officer should also be separately employed from the military and be incentivized to

uncover sexual assault rather than an internal officer who may have incentive to cover up
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incidents. The entire Sexual Assault and Prevention Response Office (SAPRO) should be

considered for externalization as well. These liasons should have full authority to take

information public to embarrass the armed services into action through accountability. This has

preliminary research to back it up, with Crosbie and Sass (2017) stating that “scandal can be

understood as a mechanism of democratic governance, one which sees social norms enforced

within institutions which have violated them.” This also has the benefit of increasing reporting of

sexual assault by removing previous barriers to filing a complaint. While it would be very

difficult to address the leadership issue, officers could be thoroughly trained in any new

regulations designed to reduce sexual assault and monitored for compliance in a manner that

would deny them the chance to cover up any instance of sexual assault. I would also recommend

a realistic job preview before new recruits sign up for the armed services. The recruiter should be

forced to be forthcoming with the information that sexual assault does happen in the military and

the strategies being employed to bring about change if they do not meet performance

benchmarks for prevention and response. These strategies would likely have unintended

consequences as well. I would expect significant pushback from the existing military leadership

structure who would not want to change. The clan culture found among functional groups is

likely to be the most insulated from organizational change. (Moran 2017) Externalizing sexual

assault reporting could also have the unintended effect of brutalizing or intimidating victims to

prevent them from making a complaint.

Conclusion

The armed services are very well set up to achieve their missions and goals due to

organizational structure. Unfortunately, the same structure and socialization that creates soldiers

out of civilians also produces high rates of sexual assault. With better response and bystander
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training, increased internal and external communication, and strong positive leadership roles

displaying accountability and zero tolerance behaviors, we should expect to see reductions in the

rate of sexual assault paired along with increased reporting and prevention behaviors.
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Works Cited

Crosbie, T., & Sass, J. (2017). Governance By Scandal? Eradicating Sexual Assault In The Us
Military. Politics, 37(2), 117-133. doi:10.1177/0263395716661342

Department of Defense (2017) 2016 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty
Members. OPA Report no. 2016–050.

Fiscal Year 2016 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military. (2017, May). Retrieved
January 31, 2018, from
http://sapr.mil/public/docs/reports/FY16_Annual/FY16_Annual_Report_FactSheet_4_Au
g_17.pdf

Holland, K. J., Rabelo, V. C., & Cortina, L. (2016). See Something, Do Something: Predicting
Sexual Assault Bystander Intentions in the U.S. Military. American Journal Of
Community Psychology, 58(1/2), 3-15. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12077

Moran, D., & Lynch, C. E. (2017). Organizational Culture And Change: What Impact Will The
United States Marine Corps' Culture Have on The Implementation of The Don't Ask
Don't Tell Repeal? Public Administration Quarterly, 41(2), 254-272

Rana Özen, K., & Nuray, M. (2015). A Research on the Relationship between Knowledge
Sharing Behaviour and Organizational Culture. Journal Of Human And Work, Vol 2, Iss
2, Pp 147-155 (2015), (2), 147. doi:10.18394/iid.86567

Rosellini, A. J., Street, A. E., Ursano, R. J., Wai Tat, C., Heeringa, S. G., Monahan, J., & ...
Kessler, R. C. (2017). Sexual Assault Victimization and Mental Health Treatment,
Suicide Attempts, and Career Outcomes Among Women in the US Army. American
Journal Of Public Health, 107(5), 732-739. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303693

Sadler, A. G., Mengeling, M. A., Booth, B. M., O’Shea, A. J., & Torner, J. C. (2017). The
Relationship Between US Military Officer Leadership Behaviors and Risk of Sexual
Assault of Reserve, National Guard, and Active Component Servicewomen in
Nondeployed Locations. American Journal Of Public Health, 107(1), 147-155.
doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303520

Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational Culture: What It Is And How To Change It. In Human
Resource Management In International Firms (pp. 56-82). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Viţalariu, M., & Moşoiu, O. (2016). Motivation And Leadership- Specific Areas Of The Military
Organization In The Spirit Of Organizational Culture. Scientific Research & Education In
The Air Force - AFASES, 1101-105.

Wood, E. J., & Toppelberg, N. (2017). The Persistence Of Sexual Assault Within The U.S.
Military. Journal Of Peace Research, 54(5), 620-633. doi:10.1177/0022343317720487
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