Research ArticleReporting Sexual Assault in the Military: Who Reports and Why Most Servicewomen Don’t
Introduction
There is increasing public and congressional attention to the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assault in the military (SAIM).1, 2 The DoD Task Force Report on Care for Victims of Sexual Assault provided a comprehensive assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in reporting and management of SAIM cases.3 This in turn led to the establishment of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) in 1995, an organization responsible for oversight of DoD sexual assault (SA) policy.4
SA is a crime that is significantly underreported, both in U.S. civilian and military populations. Reasons for reporting include: to receive medical care, catch and punish the offender so that further crimes against self or others are prevented, and because SA is a crime.5, 6, 7 However, the majority of women do not report for reasons including not wanting others to know,5, 6, 7, 8, 9 concern about insufficient proof,5, 6, 10 fear of reprisal by the offender or others,5, 7, 8, 9, 11 poor treatment or disbelief from the criminal justice system,6, 10, 12 or because it is a private matter to be handled personally.7 Within the military, service members who report may face their own penalties for collateral misconduct violations such as using alcohol, which may also deter service reporting. Notably, if victims believe reporting will result in apprehending perpetrators, they are more likely to report.13
The DoD has continued to review the prevalence of SAIM and service members’ perceptions of policy and program effectiveness through routine surveys of active-duty service members9, 14, 15, 16, 17 and Reserve component members.18, 19, 20 The 2012 survey’s prevalence estimate of unwanted sexual contact within the previous 12 months among servicewomen was nearly 7%, of which 33% of servicewomen reported the SA to military authorities. In the Reserve component, the 2012 annual prevalence rate was almost 3%, of which 20% were reported to military authorities. Because individuals are less likely to disclose being a victim,21, 22 the SAIM rates are believed to be much higher23; thus, reporting rates may in turn be lower. Barriers to and satisfaction with reporting are found primarily in DoD reports, as there is a paucity of peer-reviewed literature on reporting conducted in military populations.
Since 2005, the DoD has offered service members two official options: restricted and unrestricted reporting. Restricted reporting allows service members to confidentially report to a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) or Victim Advocate and receive medical treatment, counseling, and a forensic examination without triggering an official investigation. With restricted reporting, law enforcement is not informed nor does the command structure become involved, thus eliminating opportunity for disciplinary or protective action. The service member may convert a restricted report to an unrestricted report. Unrestricted reporting allows victims to receive the same services such as medical treatment, and in addition, law enforcement and the command structure are notified and a criminal investigation is initiated.4
The purpose of this study was to extend the DoD SAPRO data by (1) querying servicewomen’s reporting experiences throughout their military service rather than in the past year; (2) asking parallel questions to compare nonreporter barriers to reporting with reporter experiences; (3) using multivariate analyses to identify demographic, military, and SAIM factors associated with reporting; (4) investigating reporting differences between active component (AC, i.e., full-time active duty) and Reserve and National Guard (RNG) service members; and (5) to consider why there continue to be substantial barriers to reporting SAIM for servicewomen.
Section snippets
Participants and Procedure
Two mutually exclusive populations of RNG and AC servicewomen were sampled. At the time of study participation, some servicewomen were still serving, whereas others had separated from service (e.g., veterans). All participants had served in the Army or Air Force, and resided, served, or had enlisted from a Midwestern state (Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas). A sampling frame was used to stratify enlisted servicewomen by deployment history (1=never, 2=deployed to Iraq or
Results
The study response rate was 57% (Appendix D). Basic demographics were compared between non-responders (n=1,959, servicewomen with outdated contact information) and responders (n=2,813, participants and refusers). Non-responders tended to be younger (30 vs 33 years, p<0.0001) and less likely to have graduated from college (29% vs 46%, p<0.0001) than responders. Among responders, participants (n=1,597) were slightly older (34 vs 31 years, p<0.0001); white (73% vs 69%, p=0.04); and had completed
Discussion
This study provides multiple unique contributions to the literature, including identifying factors associated with SAIM reporting, assessing servicewomen’s reporting experiences and outcomes, and comparing AC and RNG servicewomen’s reporting choices and experiences. Compared to earlier VA-enrolled samples, the number of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom servicewomen who knew how to officially report increased (57% previously vs 65% in this study); however, the rates of
Acknowledgments
The research reported here was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Service grant HSR&D DHI 05-059, DHI 08-136 and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Award W81XWH-08-2-0080. The authors gratefully acknowledge Holly Erschens, BA, for her contribution as the CATI Lab Director and Carrie Franciscus, BS, MA, for her invaluable database support.
No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this
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