How the Pentagon plans to reverse its 'tragic' sexual assault crisis

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is deploying the first wave of a new Integrated Primary Prevention Workforce to bases in the U.S., Europe, and Asia where it says troops face the highest risk of the crime.

The Defense Department has long struggled to stamp out the sexual violence that has plagued American's armed forces, scarring thousands of victims along the way.

The specially trained teams have begun taking posts at U.S. military installations with the worst records for sexual assault.

The prevention specialists will work with base personnel to identify and reverse trends and behaviors that can promote sexual violence, Andra Tharp, the senior prevention adviser for the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, said in an interview. The conditions promoting sexual assault may vary from base to base or from ship to ship, but they often involve alcohol abuse and toxic leadership, Tharp said.

Priority Army bases include Fort Cavazos – the former Fort Hood – in Texas, Fort Riley in Kansas, and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Installations in Hawaii and South Korea have also been selected, according to the Army.

In 2020, independent investigators found that uniformed leaders at Fort Hood, one of military's biggest bases, had allowed sexual assault to run rampant. Soldiers compared being stationed at Hood with a deployment to a war zone.

The Navy selected Hampton Roads, Virginia, home to the largest concentration of naval bases in the world, to receive the first wave of Integrated Primary Prevention Workforce teams, along with bases in San Diego; Jacksonville and Pensacola in Florida; Naples, Italy; and Rota, Spain.

A 2018 Rand Corp. report commissioned by the Pentagon found that young women serving at training bases, and female sailors assigned to ships, faced the highest risk of sexual assault. While the Rand report was based on 2014 data, many of the same risk factors endure, including large numbers of young, unmarried, low-ranking personnel assigned to big training bases.

Last year, a Pentagon survey showed about 35,900 troops were the victims of sexual assault – crimes that range from groping to rape – in 2021, the most recent year for such data. The confidential survey of active-duty troops used a new format that rendered findings from previous years not statistically comparable. Still, the new methodology showed levels of sexual assault that Pentagon officials branded as "tragic."

That same report showed that troops' trust in the Pentagon to protect them from sexual assault had plummeted. Asked if they trusted the military system to ensure their safety following a sexual assault, 40% of women said they did in 2021, down from 69% in 2018.

Erin Kirk, a former Marine and sexual assault survivor, said the prevention effort is worthwhile but too little, too late. Assault survivors fear retaliation, including being charged with making false reports and adultery.

Until that changes, "no one is going to report," Kirk said. "And that’s exactly what they want, to lower the reporting numbers. Survivors are watching, and the services are failing."

The Integrated Primary Prevention Workforce team was recommended by an independent commission charged with stemming the tide of military sexual violence. The 425-person prevention workforce is scheduled to grow to 2,000 members by 2028. A senior Pentagon official said it could be years before the teams have an impact on sexual assault across the military.

The Pentagon is recruiting veterans, military spouses, and recent graduates of social science programs for the staff. A credentialing program for the staff includes training and continuing education.

“The first waves of hiring have been for folks at the strategic and operational level because we don't want to put folks in the field without any support above them, but also at those locations that were of highest risk,” Tharp said.

Emphasizing prevention makes sense, but five years is far too long to fully staff the prevention office, said Josh Connolly, senior vice president of Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit that advocates for troops who have been sexually assaulted.

“Our military can do amazing things when it allocates the resources and dedication to an issue,” Connolly said. “This timeline doesn’t convey the sense of urgency that this demands.”

What they'll be doing

Alcohol and drugs are a common feature of violence on bases. Preventing substance abuse, Tharp said, is often key to helping solve other problems faced by uniformed personnel beyond sexual assault, including domestic abuse, child abuse and suicide.

Finding good leaders is also key, she said.

“It's both the absence of specific risk factors, but also the presence of protective factors,” Tharp said. “We're looking for things like high levels of transformational leadership and low levels of toxic leadership. We're looking for high levels of cohesion and connectedness and high morale, and low levels of workplace hostility.”

Ideal candidates for the workforce have a deep understanding of the public health approach to prevention, she said.

At Fort Hood in 2020, the independent commission found those problems and worse, and it blames Army leaders there for ignoring prevention efforts.

"During the review period, no Commanding General or subordinate echelon commander chose to intervene proactively and mitigate known risks of high crime, sexual assault and sexual harassment," according to the report. The Army fired or suspended 14 high-ranking soldiers based on the report's findings.

Connolly criticized Pentagon leaders for failing to move faster to discipline bad leaders.

“The Pentagon needs to deal with toxic leaders immediately and get people comfortable with reporting,” he said. “They need to know that their case will be taken seriously.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sexual assault in the military: How Pentagon plans to reverse crisis