[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H.A.S.C. No. 111-17]
SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY: PREVENTION
__________
HEARING
BEFORE THE
MILITARY PERSONNEL SUBCOMMITTEE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
MARCH 6, 2009
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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MILITARY PERSONNEL SUBCOMMITTEE
SUSAN A. DAVIS, California, Chairwoman
VIC SNYDER, Arkansas JOE WILSON, South Carolina
LORETTA SANCHEZ, California WALTER B. JONES, North Carolina
MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam JOHN KLINE, Minnesota
PATRICK J. MURPHY, Pennsylvania THOMAS J. ROONEY, Florida
HANK JOHNSON, Georgia MARY FALLIN, Oklahoma
CAROL SHEA-PORTER, New Hampshire JOHN C. FLEMING, Louisiana
DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa
NIKI TSONGAS, Massachusetts
David Kildee, Professional Staff Member
Jeanette James, Professional Staff Member
Rosellen Kim, Staff Assistant
C O N T E N T S
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CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HEARINGS
2009
Page
Hearing:
Friday, March 6, 2009, Sexual Assault in the Military: Prevention 1
Appendix:
Friday, March 6, 2009............................................ 41
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FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2009
SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY: PREVENTION
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Davis, Hon. Susan A., a Representative from California,
Chairwoman, Military Personnel Subcommittee.................... 1
Wilson, Hon. Joe, a Representative from South Carolina, Ranking
Member, Military Personnel Subcommittee........................ 3
WITNESSES
Bradley, Charlene M., Assistant Deputy for Force Management
Integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force
(Manpower and Reserve Affairs), United States Air Force........ 8
Bruneau, Raymond N., Manager, Sexual Assault Prevention and
Response Program, United States Marine Corps................... 7
Collins, Carolyn R., Program Manager, Sexual Harassment and
Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program, United States
Army........................................................... 4
Foubert, Dr. John D., Associate Professor and Program
Coordinator, College Student Development Master's Program,
Oklahoma State University...................................... 28
Lee, David S., MPH, Director of Prevention Services, California
Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA)..................... 30
Robertson, Katherine, LCSW, Deputy Manager, Counseling, Advocacy
and Prevention Program, Commander, Navy Installation Command,
United States Navy............................................. 6
Whitley, Dr. Kaye, Director, Sexual Assault Prevention and
Response Office (SAPRO), Department of Defense................. 26
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Bradley, Charlene M.......................................... 81
Bruneau, Raymond N........................................... 69
Collins, Carolyn R........................................... 50
Davis, Hon. Susan A.......................................... 45
Foubert, Dr. John D.......................................... 115
Lee, David S................................................. 123
Robertson, Katherine......................................... 60
Slaughter, Hon. Louise McIntosh, a Representative from New
York....................................................... 48
Whitley, Dr. Kaye............................................ 98
Wilson, Hon. Joe............................................. 47
Documents Submitted for the Record:
[There were no Documents submitted.]
Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:
Ms. Shea-Porter.............................................. 132
Mr. Wilson................................................... 131
Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:
[There were no Questions submitted post hearing.]
SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY: PREVENTION
----------
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Military Personnel Subcommittee,
Washington, DC, Friday, March 6, 2009.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in
room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Susan A. Davis
(chairwoman of the subcommittee) presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SUSAN A. DAVIS, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
CALIFORNIA, CHAIRWOMAN, MILITARY PERSONNEL SUBCOMMITTEE
Mrs. Davis. Good morning. The meeting will come to order.
Today's hearing is the second of the series of hearings
that our subcommittee will hold this year looking at sexual
assault in the military.
Sexual assault is a complex problem that does not lend
itself to a single hearing. And today we continue our
examination of sexual assault in the military by holding a
series of hearings on individual subjects so that members and
witnesses can have in-depth discussions about various issues to
build towards a comprehensive understanding of the problem.
This will guide our deliberations on what can and should be
done next.
The first hearing in this series looked at victim advocacy
and support. And we heard from a former service member who had
been sexually assaulted while in uniform, as well as from an
impressive panel of service members whose job it is to assist
victims following an assault.
Today's hearing will look at current and planned Department
of Defense (DOD) programs to prevent sexual assault. As I think
today's witnesses will demonstrate, the Services have applied a
high level of commitment, resources and expertise to prevention
programs to educate service members and change cultural norms.
Now we have to see just how effective these programs are at
preventing assaults. The final hearing in this series, which we
will hold later in the year, will examine how assaults are
prosecuted by the military. This hearing will look at what
programs the individual services and the Department as a whole
have in place to prevent assaults from ever occurring.
Prevention programs can take many forms. Some seek to
prevent potential perpetrators from ever committing a sexual
assault. Others, so-called bystander programs, aim to teach
people how to spot potential sexual assaults so that they can
intervene and prevent them. There are also programs that
educate people on how to avoid placing themselves in vulnerable
situations.
We will hear from the Services about what prevention
programs they have already implemented and what programs they
are fielding now and what programs they have on the drawing
board. And we will then get to hear what overarching guidance
the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is providing the
Services, as well as what outside experts think of all of these
programs. We will also have the opportunity to hear how the
Department of Defense's programs compare to other prevention
programs outside the military.
Just as we have a responsibility to ensure that victims of
sexual assault receive all the support that can be provided
following an attack, we also have an obligation to do all we
can to prevent such attacks from ever taking place.
The Department of Defense has made significant improvements
in recent years. But the question we need to ask is, has enough
been done?
We have with us today each service's subject matter expert
for sexual assault prevention. We have Ms. Carolyn Collins,
Program Manager of the Army Sexual Harassment and Assault
Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program; Mr. Raymond Bruneau,
Manager of the Marine Corps Sexual Assault Prevention and
Response Program; Ms. Katherine Robertson, Deputy Manager of
the Navy's Counseling, Advocacy and Prevention Program; and
from the Air Force, Ms. Charlene Bradley, Assistant Deputy for
Force Management Integration.
I want to thank you all for being here.
Our second panel will include witnesses from the Department
of Defense's Sexual Assault Prevention Response Office (SAPRO),
Dr. Kaye Whitley, as well as two outside experts on sexual
assault prevention; Dr. John Foubert of Oklahoma State
University; and Mr. David Lee, Director of Prevention Services
for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA).
And I will make more involved introductions before that panel
testifies.
I want to reiterate that the purpose of this hearing is to
focuses on sexual assault prevention programs. Other issues
will, of course, come up. But I would like to save in-depth
conversations about those other subjects for our later hearing
so that we can give each of the topics the attention and the
discussion that they deserve today.
Also joining us, I believe, is Mr. Michael Turner, who is
not here yet. But I would ask unanimous consent that he be
allowed to participate in the hearing, as well as another
member or two who join us today.
And now to dispense with some administrative business, I
would ask unanimous consent that all of the witness testimony
be entered into the record, as well as the written testimony
from Ms. Louise Slaughter.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Slaughter can be found in
the Appendix on page 48.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you, once again, all of you, for being
here today. And Mr. Wilson do you have any opening comments.
[The prepared statement of Mrs. Davis can be found in the
Appendix on page 45.]
STATEMENT OF HON. JOE WILSON, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM SOUTH
CAROLINA, RANKING MEMBER, MILITARY PERSONNEL SUBCOMMITTEE
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Chairwoman Davis.
Today's hearing is important because the key to eliminating
sexual assault in the military is to prevent it.
I welcome the members of our two panels, who I believe can
provide useful insight into prevention programs. I sincerely
appreciate the willingness of Dr. John Foubert and Mr. David
Lee to join us to talk about strategies for combatting sexual
assault based on their research and programs throughout the
United States. I applaud the Department of Defense and the
military services for recognizing the importance of prevention
and for the steps they have taken to improve programs based on
preventing this crime. With that said, we must not only be
assured that the Department of Defense concentrates on programs
to prevent sexual assault, but also the Department will spare
nothing to provide victims of sexual assault with the services
they need. We also must know that the Department will
aggressively pursue and prosecute perpetrators of this heinous
crime.
Today I hope to hear from our witnesses how the Department
and the military services are implementing the prevention
aspect of the comprehensive policy for the prevention and
response to sexual assaults. Congress mandated this policy
through the work of this subcommittee in 2005. What policies
and programs are working? How do you measure the program
success? Where does the system fall short? Have you identified
areas that need improvement? How can we help as a Member of
Congress?
And, indeed, I am very pleased to see all of the Services
represented today. And I know that this, I think, will be a
hearing which will indicate the extraordinary success and the
sincere implementation efforts that you have made.
It is clear that the Department and the military services
have recognized the importance of partnering with nationally
recognized civilian experts to identify best practices and find
the right solutions to prevent this devastating crime. I
commend the leadership for looking outside of their own
organizations and for utilizing all available resources to
protect the health and welfare of our service members. Our
commitment to help you achieve this goal is unwavering.
With that, I would like to thank our witnesses for
participating in the hearing today. I look forward to your
testimony.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wilson can be found in the
Appendix on page 47.]
Mrs. Davis. Great. Thank you, Mr. Wilson.
And I know, with some of the presentations, we are going to
see some video clips, and presenters will just introduce those
as we move forward. And of course, as always, we are going to
entertain a number of questions.
And so if you can keep your remarks to the four or five
minutes if you have to, that would be greatly appreciated. The
other thing I might mention is I believe we are going to have a
vote in just a few minutes, so we will get started, Ms.
Collins, and then we may perhaps have a second presentation,
and then we will have to break and come right back. But I
believe it is only one vote at this time.
Thank you.
Ms. Collins, would you proceed.
STATEMENT OF CAROLYN R. COLLINS, PROGRAM MANAGER, SEXUAL
HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT RESPONSE AND PREVENTION (SHARP) PROGRAM,
UNITED STATES ARMY
Ms. Collins. Thank you, ma'am.
Chairwoman Davis, Ranking Member Wilson, distinguished
members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to
appear before you today and to discuss the Army's efforts to
combat sexual assault. On behalf of the Secretary, the Chief of
Staff and Lieutenant General Rochelle, the Deputy Chief of
Staff, G-1, I am honored to be here today to reassure you that
the Army considers sexual assault a very serious issue and to
share with you the aggressive actions we are taking to
eliminate this crime from our ranks.
Behavior such as sexual assault violates the very essence
of what it means to be a soldier. The Secretary and the Chief
continue to reinforce the fact that American soldiers are
members of a band of brothers and sisters bound together by
common values that set them apart from the rest of society.
Time and again our soldiers display acts of heroism to protect
and save the lives of their fellow soldiers. Such acts are not
uncommon, and they are expected of our soldiers when protecting
their battle buddies both on and off the battlefield.
It is within this context that we consider the crime of
sexual assault to be incongruent with the Army's core values.
We believe it is the duty of every soldier to intervene and
stop incidents before they occur. Soldiers who fail to
intervene and protect their fellow soldier from harassment or
the risk of sexual assault have forsaken the warrior ethos to
never leave a fallen comrade.
The Army's goal remains unchanged: To eliminate sexual
assault and harassment by creating a climate where the
inappropriate behavior is not accepted. Creating and
maintaining such a climate is the responsibility of every
leader at every level throughout the Army.
With the Secretary and Chief personally providing
leadership support and guidance, we launched a comprehensive
sexual assault campaign in September of 2008. The campaign
centers on leaders establishing a positive command climate
where soldiers understand and adhere to the Army's intent to
prevent sexual assault. The campaign encourages soldiers to
personally execute peer-to-peer intervention and to not
tolerate behavior that could lead to sexual assault.
The cornerstone of the Army's Sexual Assault Prevention
Campaign is the ``I. A.M. Strong'' program, where the letters
I, A, and M stand for intervene, act and motivate. Today,
throughout the Army, leaders are implementing the ``I. A.M.
Strong'' initiatives and motivating soldiers to proactively
prevent sexual assault. ``I. A.M. Strong'' features soldiers as
influential role models and provides peer-to-peer messages
outlining the Army's intent for all its members to personally
take action.
The Secretary of the Army introduced the Sexual Assault
Prevention Campaign and ``I. A.M. Strong'' during the Army
Sexual Assault Prevention and Risk Reduction Training Summit on
September 9, 2008. With over 250 attendees and nearly 70
general officers in attendance, as well as subject matter
experts, Representatives from Congress, DOD and our sister
services, our commanders and our Sexual Assault Prevention
Program managers down to the division level represented both
active, National Guard, and Reserve commands, to include
commands deployed from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area
of operation.
The summit served as a forum to launch the prevention
campaign by providing training on best practices from across
the Nation and the opportunity to develop their own commands'
prevention plans in alignment with our overarching prevention
strategy. Our campaign strategy, which is outlined in my
written statement, consists of four overlapping phases that
extend to 2013.
The first phase initiated our aggressive prevention
initiatives, which will be followed by the other phases we will
build upon. The measurement of our strategy's success is to
increase the soldiers' propensity to report this crime. This
reporting will demonstrate their confidence in their command
and their fellow soldiers and will allow the Army the ability
to hold offenders accountable.
Other key components of the prevention campaign include a
comprehensive effort to improve our Army's investigation and
prosecution of sexual assault. We have started several
initiatives in our Criminal Investigation Command and Judge
Advocate General's (JAG's) Corps, which will increase our
ability and our expertise to investigate and prosecute sexual
assault crimes. These initiatives include additional
investigators and prosecutors at our busiest jurisdictions,
resulting in a capacity similar to the civilian special victims
units.
And I would like to stop at this point to have an
opportunity to have you see the video. We are just going to be
showing the end of the video right now, the last couple minutes
of it. But it will certainly address our prevention areas. And
then we will stop to speak to the rest of the program quickly.
Mrs. Davis. Okay. Thank you.
[Video played.]
Ms. Collins. With that, let me just conclude in saying
that, although we are starting new prevention initiatives,
refined prevention initiatives, and increasing those efforts,
we continue to support and emphasize our response capabilities
and services. We continue to fully resource the Army-wide
Victim Advocacy Program (VAP) led by our sexual assault
response coordinators who interact directly with our victims of
sexual assault and other response agencies.
The Army is committed to fully implementing new
initiatives; assessing our efforts; sustaining and refining our
comprehensive and effective Sexual Assault Prevention Campaign.
The Army is one of our national treasures whose positive
reputation is largely due to its values, warrior ethos and
dedicated professionals. With the success of our ``I. A.M.
Strong'' initiatives, our soldiers will set the standard of
conduct with their peers, ensuring soldier safety within the
Army.
In closing, I thank you for the opportunity to appear
before you today. Your continued support of the Army, our
soldiers and families and your partnership in helping us
address this important issue. I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Collins can be found in the
Appendix on page 50.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
And Ms. Robertson, I think we have time to have your
presentation.
STATEMENT OF KATHERINE ROBERTSON, LCSW, DEPUTY MANAGER,
COUNSELING, ADVOCACY AND PREVENTION PROGRAM, COMMANDER, NAVY
INSTALLATION COMMAND, UNITED STATES NAVY
Ms. Robertson. Chairwoman Davis, Ranking Member Wilson and
members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to
share with you the Navy's efforts to prevent sexual assault.
Thank you for your leadership in this vital issue.
Sexual Assault Victim Intervention, SAVI, is one of the
many critical programs servicing the fleet, fighter and family.
Implementing the responsive SAVI program with an effective
prevention strategy is a top priority for Navy leadership.
Established in 1994, the Navy SAVI program served as a role
model for the Department of Defense and provides a standardized
comprehensive victim-sensitive system that deters and responds
to sexual assaults. Prevention of sexual assaults, response for
victims, and offender accountability are Navy priorities.
Sexual assault is incompatible with our core values, our high
standards of military professionalism and personal discipline.
SAVI is well grounded with scientific knowledge and best
practices in the civilian population. We incorporate new
research in prevention methods all the time. SAVI prevention
and awareness training aims to ensure that all personnel afloat
and ashore know what constitutes sexual assault and sexual
harassment, understand the meaning of consent, and know the
reporting options of victims. Our curriculum has focused on
risk reduction with the emphasis on the role played by alcohol
that can lead to sexual assaults and the importance of watching
out for your shipmate's safety.
Annual training is designed to prevent sexual assault,
reduce risk and is provided for all levels of leadership. We
have best practices such as Liberty Call and Prevent that are
focused for 18- to 26-year-olds on decision-making processes.
SAVI is a command-led program. Commanders fill key SAVI
positions with skilled personnel to ensure that we have trained
victim advocates 24/7 to provide response on and off the
installation and during deployment. All port visits require
pre-briefings from the ship's leadership regarding expectations
for behavior.
How do we measure our prevention initiatives? We have
multiple ways. We have Navy inspector general visits. Our
accreditation process for our SAVI program all include focus
groups with command, the fleet and our key stakeholders. We
recently did a Navy-wide study, scientific study, the SAVI
Quick Poll, in 2008 for leadership to gauge sailors' knowledge
and perception of the Navy SAVI program and resources. Our
Quick Poll results show increased awareness of the SAVI program
to include restrictive reporting and services available to
victims. We have positive trends and gains in awareness for all
groups between 2004 and 2008 since we have been doing the
survey. Most importantly, there was a significant increase in
the number of sailors who indicated that they would report a
sexual assault to Navy authorities, which is very important to
us.
Increasing prevention and awareness with a strong messaging
campaign is a major focus. We have done multiple public service
announcements to include one with the Secretary of the Navy,
another one focusing on bystander intervention and restrictive
reporting. Today you will see a movie, an award winning movie,
``Megan's Story,'' which we released and is used in all of our
annual training.
Navy commanding officers are charged with providing the
safest possible physical and emotional environment for sailors
to establish a command climate of respect. We are planning to
conduct a Department of Navy senior leadership and key
stakeholder summit this year as a part of a comprehensive
sexual assault prevention strategy. We thank you for your
leadership in this issue. We are committed to implementing our
enhanced prevention strategy in the Navy in alignment with the
OSD prevention policy. We want to address culture change.
And we thank you again for this opportunity. I look forward
to showing you ``Megan's Story'' and answering your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Robertson can be found in
the Appendix on page 60.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you. I think we have time. It is about
two and a half to three minutes.
Ms. Robertson. It is three minutes.
[Video played.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you. We will be back in just a few
minutes, about 10 minutes or so. Thank you very much.
[Recess.]
Mrs. Davis. Okay.
Thank you all for waiting. We are going to proceed.
Mr. Bruneau.
STATEMENT OF RAYMOND N. BRUNEAU, MANAGER, SEXUAL ASSAULT
PREVENTION AND RESPONSE PROGRAM, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
Mr. Bruneau. Good morning Chairwoman Davis, Ranking Member
Wilson, and members and guests of the subcommittee. Thank you
for your continuing support for Marines and their families.
Sexual Assault Prevention and Response is a very serious
matter. As the Marine Corps continues its efforts to prevent
sexual assault, directly care for our victims, and ensure
offenders are held accountable, we appreciate your unfailing
support in efforts to raise awareness of this important issue.
People are our most important resource. Marines have a long
history of taking care of their own, which means that we do not
intentionally harm one another, nor do we leave a comrade
behind. Victims of sexual assault are entitled to our support
and care and deserve to be returned to the fight as fully
functioning Marines.
The Marine Corps is committed as always to caring for its
own because it is the right thing to do. The Marine Corps has
worked diligently to stand up and evolve this program through
lessons learned and through collaboration with our sister
services in the Office of Secretary of Defense.
During 2009-2010, we are additionally committed to
prevention-oriented program improvements, including hiring
full-time program coordinators at the regional level;
leveraging technology to make better use of available training
platforms; implementing the Department of Defense's prevention
strategy, which we strongly believe supports our core values of
honor, courage and commitment; and in concert with a parent
service or a parent department, the Department of the Navy,
examining all functional areas of this program in-depth.
And in closing, Madam Chairwoman, I would like to thank you
again for spotlighting an issue which is not only important to
us as a military service but is important to our society as a
whole.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Bruneau can be found in the
Appendix on page 69.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
Ms. Bradley.
STATEMENT OF CHARLENE M. BRADLEY, ASSISTANT DEPUTY FOR FORCE
MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION, OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF
THE AIR FORCE (MANPOWER AND RESERVE AFFAIRS), UNITED STATES AIR
FORCE
Ms. Bradley. Chairwoman Davis, Ranking Member Wilson, and
subcommittee members, it is a privilege to appear before you
this morning to be the voice for a team of dedicated
professionals who have worked enthusiastically since 2004.
Prevention is a never-ending commitment. It requires
consistent continuing education and training; continuing
emphasis by leadership on standards and values; visible support
for victims; and deterrence. In 2004, Air Force leadership
directed an Air Force-wide assessment, and the resulting report
shaped our entire approach to prevention.
The most crucial finding was that we simply did not
understand the realities of sexual assault. We recognized the
immediate need for subject matter experts external to the Air
Force to share their research and expertise to inform our
efforts. Key things that we learned from them: First, the
majority of assaults, both in the military and the general
population, are committed by nonstrangers. Among these
nonstranger assailants, there are those individuals who crossed
the line into criminal behavior because of a one-time set of
circumstances culminating in an assault.
Second, there is also a very small percentage of men,
serial sexual predators, who are responsible for a vastly
disproportionate amount of the sexual violence in any
community. They do significant damage. They premeditate their
assaults and they get away with it because victims do not
report.
Finally, significant barriers exist to reporting, and some
of those are unique to the military. Traditional prevention and
risk-reduction programs focus on changing the behavior of the
potential victim, primarily females, assuming that if they
avoided unsafe situations, they would not be assaulted. Our
approach to prevention and risk-reduction training also focuses
on understanding how perpetrators behave and include sessions
on making responsible choices, setting good boundaries, and
developing good communication skills, as well as avoiding
behaviors that can make a person vulnerable to a sexual
assault.
Commanders must create safe working environments, and they
must establish and maintain a climate that doesn't tolerate
disrespectful or inappropriate behavior.
Our first prevention effort in 2005 focused on educating
every Air Force member about the crime, debunking the myths and
introducing a positive role airmen could take to prevent a
sexual assault before it happened. The Air Force developed
standardized training for schools and professional military
education at all levels beginning with the sessions. About to
be released is a module for predeployment covering those topics
unique to the deployed environment. While the training is
currently being presented at all these levels, we continue to
develop standardized modules to enhance consistency of the
training.
Our current prevention initiative focuses on development of
a Bystander Intervention Training Program. Bystander
intervention is a strategy that motivates people who may see,
hear or otherwise recognize signs of inappropriate or an unsafe
situation to act in a positive prosocial manner. We and the
experts believe the most effective prevention efforts must be
focused on airmen who, by their participation in peer groups
and activities, might either actively or passively provide
support or camouflage for the sexual predators in their midst.
To continue our prevention efforts, we are developing a
long-term plan consistent with the recently released DOD
Prevention Plan that will provide the continuing emphasis and
attention to our ultimate goal, which is to create an
environment and a culture where sexual assault does not occur.
We work closely with Air National Guard, the Air Force
Reserves, our sister services, the Joint Staff and the SAPRO
staff. Secretary Michael Donnelly and General Norton Schwartz
have specifically charged Air Force leaders with the
responsibility to set and uphold the highest standards that
will not tolerate sexual assault. We will continue to serve our
airmen with the passion that they deserve.
We particularly appreciate the opportunity to share our
journey with you, and we appreciate the dedication that you
have shown to this issue and to our airmen.
The clip, ma'am, that we would like to show you is one of
our standardized modules. In each one of our standardized
training models, we are trying to insert something on bystander
intervention. In addition to the broad training that we are
about to put out, this particular excerpt will be shown to
instructors who are trained at Basic Military Training (BMT)
and at tech training schools to help them demonstrate the very
fundamental behaviors that we want them to teach our airmen.
[Video played.]
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bradley can be found in the
Appendix on page 81.]
Mrs. Davis. I want to thank you for bringing the
videotapes, because I think that is helpful to us to see, and
we might have a chance to talk about them some as well.
One of the questions, I think, that goes throughout your
testimony and certainly is something that we understand and
share when you talk about the fact that none of the service
cultures tolerate sexual assault, but then we go on to talk
about how we need to change the culture. And so I am wondering
if you could help us understand better and kind of drill down
on this, too, to look at, what of the military culture you
think doesn't tolerate sexual assault and, in fact, what
elements perhaps may enable it? And what is it that you are
trying to get out specifically?
I think we certainly have a sense of that. The bystander
issue is one. But if you could all just think a little bit more
about that and why that might not necessarily be in sync,
because we certainly applaud your interest in trying to change
the culture, and yet we applaud the values as well.
Anybody want to start with that.
Ms. Bradley. Ma'am, let me address it just a little bit,
please.
In society as a whole, there are behaviors that appear to
be very normal. A young man, who, I mean the terminology is
often used to scuttle out and have a hit or whatever. Those
behaviors are not really as normal as they seem with certain
individuals, with the serial predators that I talked about.
I also mentioned there are occasions where young men step
over that limit on a one-time occasion. But we are finding that
we have a larger number than I would hope of young women who
are coming into the service with prior assaults. National
studies have been done that this is a tragedy of youth. So we
have both that societal issue to deal with, and if you have,
frankly, a serial sexual predator in your midst, they are going
to use all the vulnerabilities they can. And when a lot of
young women come into the military, they are looking for a
home; they are looking for stability; they are looking for
trust. And someone who is really going to use that can do so in
a military environment.
Ms. Collins. Ma'am, if I could. We just recently did focus
groups with our young soldiers coming into the military as well
within the first two weeks of them coming in. And what they
expressed to us was they are, based on images and socially what
they believe--do you need me a little closer? What they
stressed to us is events or actions that they would not
consider sexual assault outside the military, they are learning
immediately they can be charged with inside the military. And
so I think it is a cultural change where we have to address all
the images and possibly 22 years of things that may have been
socialized into them as acceptable and let them know
immediately.
That is why we are aggressively targeting our newest
sessions with our training, that those actions, behaviors are
not acceptable and will not be acceptable within the Army. And
so I do believe it is the social aspect we have to get at that
we are countering images all the time, advertisements, media
that tells them certain actions may be acceptable, and we have
to counter that message.
Ms. Robertson. Madam Chairwoman, I would also like to talk
a little bit about, we are, as we are talking about, a
microcosm of society. So we do have people enter the service
that have had a history of assault, as Charlene was referring
to. And so we want to make it a safe place.
But the people who have been victims in the past are
usually the most easily targeted in the future. We want to
recognize and provide a safe environment. We want to focus on
risk reduction. We want to make sure that we are not doing
victim blaming. We want to make sure that we utilize bystander
intervention and other methods so that it is not always on the
female to watch all their actions and to try to be safe.
So we are all using the civilian experts. We are using what
we see in society to really make a difference. And as Carolyn
is talking about, we are holding them to a standard that might
not be as high as what they are used to before they are getting
in.
We really are focusing on offender accountability. We want
to get the message out, as in our ``Megan's Story'' and in all
the training that we are doing, that we are going to hold
offenders accountable. So we really take this very seriously.
We want to make a difference.
Mr. Bruneau. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
The fact is that most Marines, the vast majority of Marines
do not commit this crime.
As Ms. Bradley said, predators do exist. They constitute a
very small percentage of those whom we receive in from the
civilian sector. However, they know what they are doing. They
know how to pick a victim. They know how to groom a victim, and
they know how to make their premeditation succeed with not
necessarily--not tacit support, but inaction.
That is why the focus of our prevention strategy on
bystander intervention is so important. It is as important for
us to educate our Marines how to recognize inappropriate
behavior and risk-laden scenarios and how to give them the
tools to react appropriately to prevent a crime from occurring
in the first place.
Mrs. Davis. My time is up. And we will have some more
rounds.
Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Chairwoman.
And as a 31-year veteran of the Army, as the father of four
sons currently serving in the U.S. military, I agree with Ms.
Collins. And that is that sexual assault violates the essence
of being a soldier.
I also want to thank you for the video on Army values. I
wish more people in our country knew of the Army values. These
are the values that all of us should live by. In particular,
strong bonds of trust is the culture of America's military. So
what you are doing is so crucial.
And Mr. Bruneau, I particularly want to cite the Marine
Corps. I am very grateful. All female Marines in the world have
been trained at Parris Island, South Carolina, which I am very
grateful to represent. And so when I meet female Marines
anywhere in the world, I immediately have a strong bond and
appreciation of their service.
And whoever would like to answer this. Your written
statements and your testimony this morning clearly show that
each military service has undertaken a huge resource-intensive
effort to combat sexual assault. What are your thoughts about
how effective your programs are? How do you plan to measure
whether your programs are effective?
Ms. Collins. Sir, I can go ahead and start to answer that
question for you.
We did a full assessment of our program last year. We stood
up in a General Officer Steering Committee and did a full
assessment of the program after our annual report came out
because we were still experiencing assaults within the Army, so
we were not to the point where we wanted to be as a service.
With that full assessment, we revised our prevention efforts
and released our new strategy and campaign in September. And
with that, every piece of our strategy across our campaign has
measurement tools for each phase and including building up the
propensity to report and bringing down the number of assaults.
Each action we are rolling out within our strategy, all of our
education efforts and prevention efforts have, metrics built
into them, because we do want to continue to assess ourselves
and refine our efforts with this effort.
Bystander intervention is a relatively new form of doing
so, and with those efforts, we want to make sure that we are
getting the results we want with our training and that our
assaults are being eliminated within the military.
Mr. Wilson. And how specifically do you judge
effectiveness?
Ms. Collins. Specifically on the training, sir? We also
will be doing annual surveys with our soldiers to determine
their propensity to report, how many assaults have occurred
that we do not know about that may not have been reported
within the last year. But we certainly are looking at, not only
the different tools, but there is a synergy of the prevention
efforts that are going to go on. So we want to see which are
having the most effect with our soldiers, which messages speak
to them the strongest and are influencing their behaviors.
Mr. Wilson. Would anybody else like to cite their programs
and effectiveness?
Ms. Robertson. I will sir. I, too, am a family member. I
have two sons in the military; one in Djibouti serving right
now, and one getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan in the
Army. So I understand the military values, so I am really proud
to be here and talk about this program and take it as a
personal interest.
For the Navy, we do Navy inspector general (IG) visits
every region, every site, to look at the programs. In Sexual
Assault Victim Intervention, our SAVI program, we do focus
groups. We really look at, what are they aware of? What is out
there? Are we reporting effectively? We had a Navy IG study in
2004 that showed lots of areas we needed to improve. But the
good news is we have made all those improvements with the
changes in the DOD policy, increased staffing, new training,
emphasis on training using civilian experts. We have vetted our
curriculum with the national civilian experts Pennsylvania
Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) and National Organization for
Victim Assistance (NOVA). We continue to evolve and change and
improve our processes.
We also have an accreditation program that goes out and
interviews the fleet, the commanders, our key stakeholders;
medical, legal, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS),
and looks at our program to make sure that we are meeting all
the policy requirements. And then, as I talked about quickly,
was the SAVI Quick Poll which we did in 2004, 2005 and 2008,
which really is a measurement of awareness of the program, of
the resources, and if victims would feel comfortable reporting
their sexual assault. And our 2008 poll was very gratifying. We
are getting the word out. They are getting the message. We are
focusing again on our recruit command on our 18- to 26-year-
olds. We have a lot of products out about decision-making
processes and will continue to improve and focus on bystander
intervention.
Mr. Wilson. And I am particularly interested in
measurements. And so I would be very interested to receive a
copy of the information and the polling that you just
indicated. If you could provide that to us.
Ms. Robertson. I will take that for the record and be glad
to do that.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 131.]
Mr. Wilson. And thank you for your family's service.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
Did anybody else want to comment on that briefly or perhaps
you can in the next round with other speakers?
Thank you.
Ms. Tsongas.
Ms. Tsongas. Yes. Thank you very much for your testimony.
I have a question to address sort of the underlying
cultural issues that you have all referred to. When the Air
Force Academy first started to be aware of the issue of sexual
assault in the academies, one of the things they found in the
culture was that one out of five of their students, or their
cadets, did not believe women should be in the military. Have
you all examined that in the course of trying to deal with
addressing the underlying culture of your services? I just
wonder if there has been any research done on this or on the
fundamental belief that women should be serving with men. Is
that a no?
Ms. Bradley. Ma'am, I have not, or our team has not taken
that on specifically, but we are very aware of it, as is the
Academy, and they work that those cultural issues about women
are full up members of the team. Gender, race, anything like
that should have no play in our effort together to be the
defense for this Nation. We do know, as we have done in our
training, that many of the things that cause this kind of
behavior are disrespect for one another, are myths about women,
about other races. And we are purposefully in all of our
training addressing that about how women are treated, as the
one that you just saw. You don't be disrespectful to someone on
your team, regardless of who they are. So we are definitely
aware of it, and we are including it in every piece of training
we have.
Ms. Tsongas. As a part of the change in the culture?
Ms. Bradley. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. Tsongas. Is that true across the board?
The other issue I wanted to address is the issue of
bystander. And I applaud you for your efforts around that. But
one of the concerns I have is how the command structure
embraces all the good work that you are doing and to the extent
that there are issues with commanders not being fully endorsing
of all the work that you are doing; in essence, they become the
ultimate bystander. So I am curious as to how you manage to
work from the top down to be sure that every element of the
Services endorses the fact that they have an important role to
play as a bystander, whether or not it is stopping a specific
act that may be in progress or potentially in progress, but at
the very top creating a culture that says none of us are going
to be indifferent to this?
Ms. Bradley. In the Bystander Intervention Training that I
mentioned that we have recently developed, there are three
phases, and one is specifically for leaders. Our deputy chief
of staff of personnel in fact is going to receive that training
the middle of this month before it goes out, but training that
specifically leaders take to show how they must intervene in
circumstances.
But part of the basic is getting people to understand the
dynamics of sexual assault, the complexities of it, and the
behaviors that are associated with it. So we will have training
for leaders, training for men, and training for women in the
bystander intervention.
Ms. Tsongas. Is there any work being done in the
coursework, the kinds of courses people take in the course of
their professional progress, the War Colleges? Is there any
kind of training going on there for the leaders in the making?
Ms. Collins. Ma'am, if I may.
The Army implemented training from basic training to our
general officer level back in November of 2004. And we have
revised that once, and we are on our second revision of that
training right now. So as you go up in leadership roles and go
to higher leadership schools, you get sequential training on
your requirements under the program.
With the launch of our summit this last September, that
launched our first phase which is titled Committed Army
Leadership, and the Secretary and Chief were extensive in the
direction with all commanders that they will be highly engaged
with this program. Our commanders left that summit with their
own action plan to immediately implement when they got back to
their command areas, and they began in implementation, which we
will be briefing out during our next summit, which is in early
April this year.
Ms. Tsongas. Thank you.
Ms. Robertson. Ma'am, I would like to tell you that the
Navy also has different levels of training, and we have
specific leadership training. At the Senior Enlisted Academy
this last year, we gave them real-life case scenarios for
discussion so that they could really look at what went well,
what didn't go well, what are the system issues. And so we take
it very seriously that each level of leadership needs a
different type of training to focus on what their position is
and to look at it a different way. So I commend you for your
comment and question because it is important that we address
this training at all different levels.
Ms. Tsongas. Thank you.
I don't know what my time is, but thank you.
Mrs. Davis. Ms. Shea-Porter.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Thank you.
This question is for each one of you. And I have been very
concerned about the high rate of moral waivers that have been
given to entrants, in particularly the Army, over the past few
years. And my question is, although you don't work with that
part, do you see any connection? Do you have any knowledge
whatsoever of what number of men who have gotten moral waivers
are actually causing trouble on bases? I have been concerned
about that, and I can't get the information I need right now.
So I just want to know how many people have received moral
waivers, if you know. And if any of the moral misconduct, and I
know some of it can be very small misdemeanor stuff, but if any
of it has to do with sexual misconduct, do you know that at
all?
Let me start with Ms. Collins.
Ms. Collins. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for the opportunity to
address that issue.
Our office does not track or do comparisons. That is not a
regular, reoccurring requirement for our case data or our
report requirements that we provide up through DOD or to our
leadership.
With the second part of your question, on offenders
potentially coming into the military, previous offenders, we
have policy in place that speaks to personnel recruitment
issues and that recruiters cannot recruit individuals or
provide waivers for an individual who has committed a violent
sexual offense.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Okay. So any recruits, potential recruits,
who show up at a recruiting office and have had something in
their past cannot enter the Army?
Ms. Collins. Yes, ma'am. The policy states that they cannot
be assessed into the military if they have a criminal history
of sexual violence.
Ms. Shea-Porter. And is each potential recruit's background
searched for that?
Ms. Collins. Yes, ma'am. We do do security checks on the
background of our recruits.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Okay. And, as far as you know, have there
been any surprises, anybody who has slipped through that?
Ms. Collins. Not to my knowledge, ma'am.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Thank you.
Ms. Robertson.
Ms. Robertson. Thank you, ma'am. As Ms. Collins stated,
this is a program not within our purview for my
responsibilities, the SAVI program. I would be glad to take
this for the record. It is under our personnel policy.
But I will tell you that our policy does state that we will
not recruit or admit any convicted sex offenders. So it is in
our policy, has been in our policy for many years, but I would
be glad to take the question for the record.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 132.]
Ms. Shea-Porter. Okay, well, I appreciate that. But I guess
what I am getting at is, are we finding all of them before they
come in? Because I don't believe that just getting into the
military turns you into that. I think they come into the
military with those tendencies and that aggressiveness. And so
I am wondering what we have in place to catch them beforehand.
It is hard for me to believe they never exhibited that kind of
behavior until they get in the Army or into the Air Force and
suddenly you find out that you have one in the group.
So what do we do to make sure we find them beforehand?
Because we know that they may not have a criminal record, but
what do we do to look in their background to see if they have
had problems, if there have been any kinds of accusations? How
good is the work to prevent them from entering, is what I am
asking.
Mrs. Davis. Ms. Shea-Porter, may I just add to your
question? Because I think what we are also looking for, are our
screening tools adequate?
Do you feel that the work that you have done or the work of
experts around the country have made a contribution to trying
to have screening tools that actually provide us with the kind
of information that might raise a red flag in some of those
early efforts to talk to people about their entrance into the
Services?
Mr. Bruneau. Thank you, Congresswoman Shea-Porter. I
appreciate the opportunity to talk to this.
I am not in recruiting, I am not an expert on recruiting.
But my understanding is that Marine recruiters routinely
perform a local records check on all of their applicants. And
Marine Corps policy and Marine Corps order specifically
prohibits the enlistment or commissioning of a registered sex
offender.
The etymology of predation is such that the perpetrators of
this crime do it until they get caught. So it is not certain
that a background check or a records check is going to reveal
someone who is a predator, because they may not have been
caught yet.
Ms. Bradley. Ma'am, we also have a policy that prohibits us
from either enlisting or commissioning anyone into the service
with a qualified conviction. And we have not issued any
waivers.
But your question is absolutely on-spot. Back in 2004, we
had all of our vice commanders in from the major commands, and
we invited Dr. David Lisak, who is an expert on sex offenders,
to talk to them. And he was explaining to them how these folks
operate. And they immediately said to him, ``Can you devise a
screening tool for us so we never bring them in?'' And Dr.
Lisak's response was, ``I cannot, because they look like you,
they look like your son, they look like your cousin, they look
like your grandson.''
And it is very difficult, unless you are aware of this
behavior and you can watch it over a certain amount of time, it
is almost impossible to screen it. I wish we could. I sincerely
wish that we could.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Well, I will say that I have a feeling
that, if you talk to the high school and maybe some of the
young women who graduated with some of those people, you would
get an idea about whether you had somebody who was pretty
aggressive and inappropriate.
There just seems to be missing from this discussion the
sense that we have to find them before they show up. And the
numbers are just appalling. For all of the efforts--and I
commend you for your efforts; they are just wonderful--but for
all of the efforts, it is still occurring. And the Army's rate
actually looks like it has shot up some.
So we have to look further back than from the day they show
up at the recruiter's doorstep. I think it is essential. And,
you know, how to do that, I think, is up to the experts there,
but I am certain that there is something else to this equation
here.
Thank you all.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
Dr. Snyder.
Dr. Snyder. Mr. Bruneau, I am going to direct my question
to you, just in the interest of time, but I certainly could
direct it to any of the rest of you.
I wanted to ask about the overseas situation, particularly
the Iraq and Afghanistan situation now. How well do you think
we are doing, and how do you monitor the following items: the
availability of immediate counseling after some kind of an
event; the availability of emergency health care, including
referrals for any follow-up treatment a person may need; the
availability of forensics, of high-quality forensics material
for obtaining samples; and the availability of prosecution and
help with the movement of witnesses and so on because of the
mobilized situation?
How do you monitor all those things, and how do you think
we are doing?
Mr. Bruneau. Thank you, Congressman Snyder.
Our program, as it is operated in deployed environments, is
designed to replicate as nearly as it can the program that we
use in the states and garrison, understanding that there are
some differences and unique challenges that are inherent in the
combat environment.
As I understand it, you would like to have some idea of
what we are doing to provide immediate counseling for victims,
the availability of forensics, I guess you mean sexual assault
examination kits, and emergency care in place, as well as
investigation and prosecution. Am I on the mark there, sir?
Dr. Snyder. It is not just the forensic kits, by the way.
It is having professionals there that know that their medical
notes better be legible, they better have an eye that whatever
they say and do may have impact on a criminal case down the
line. But, yes, that is the idea.
Mr. Bruneau. Yes, sir. I would like to talk about the
availability of forensics and sexual assault examination kits
and that area first, if I may.
Of course, for the Marine Corps, medicine is provided for
us by the United States Navy. Each of the military treatment or
the medical treatment facilities may not have a sexual assault
examination kit on hand. If a victim presents and requests to
have a kit performed, because it is at their option, then the
responder, the health care provider at that military treatment
facility will notify the Naval Criminal Investigative Service
(NCIS). An agent will bring the kit to the military treatment
facility.
Any health care provider who is qualified to conduct a
basic obstetrical-gynecology exam is qualified to conduct a
sexual assault examination.
Dr. Snyder. In the interest of time, I am going to
interrupt you, if I might. I understand that. And what you are
describing is what the situation is stateside also.
My question is, how do you monitor? And what you just
described, how available is that for the convenience of the men
and women who may have been sexually assaulted? How do you
monitor that?
Mr. Bruneau. Sir, the kit enters the--it is inducted into
the evidentiary stream, the chain of custody, according to the
protocol that is published by the Bureau of Medicine and
Surgery, as well as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
There is a chain-of-custody form that is used, and the health
care personnel are trained on how to properly complete that
form.
The kit is delivered by the NCIS agent. The examination is
conducted, and the evidence that is collected is sealed per the
protocol and returned to the NCIS agent, who then takes care of
shipping it back to the States to the laboratory.
Dr. Snyder. My time is about up. Maybe we should pursue
this at another time.
My question is, for example, right now, today, do we know,
at Taji, do we know, are there kits there? Are they at Taji? If
not, how long would it be? Time is a factor. You can't say,
``Well, we will have one in two days.'' I assume we are talking
about a matter of hours at the most that you would want time to
go by.
So how do you monitor whether those things are available or
not in the overseas deployed situation?
Mr. Bruneau. My understanding is that the kits are held by
NCIS at the resident agency in Iraq. And the time factor is
inherent to the combat environment. It is difficult to
transport investigators to the victim, and it is difficult to
transport victims back to where service may be provided.
Dr. Snyder. Ms. Robertson, I wanted to ask you a question.
If somebody believes that they had been sexually assaulted and
reported it both to the civilian and military world, because
the alleged perpetrator was somebody in the Navy, but were not
satisfied with how the case was pursued, what are their
options?
Ms. Robertson. Thank you for your question.
We have many options. For one thing, for victims of sexual
assault, for all unrestricted cases, anyone who has pursued and
involves an investigation, we have a monthly sexual assault
case management group that includes legal, naval, criminal,
NCIS, medical, chaplains, counselors, our sexual assault
response coordinator, and a victim advocate.
One of the main purposes of this group is to make sure that
the victim is getting the care that they need, the victim is
being heard. The victim advocate and the command representative
represent that victim at the meeting to make sure that we have
that full, multidisciplinary discussion.
Anyone, at any time, could call the Navy Inspector General
(IG). We have many avenues for a victim to let us know that
they are not getting the help they need or they are not happy
with the service they are getting. And we have to respond to
that. When we do our Navy IG visits, we have findings that we
have to respond to.
So we have many systems in place to make sure that--victim
care is our number-one priority, response to victims. So it is
irregardless of where it happens, location, we want to make
sure that the victims are taken care of.
Dr. Snyder. Thank you.
Mrs. Davis. Mr. Loebsack.
Mr. Loebsack. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I do have a question, but I think, at this point, if it is
okay, I would like to yield to our colleague, Mrs. Capps from
California. Is that okay, Madam Chair?
Mrs. Davis. That is okay, sir.
We have been joined by Mrs. Lois Capps from California, who
is very interested in this subject.
Mrs. Capps. Thank you. I also don't want to take time from
Mr. Loebsack, but if I could use a couple of minutes mostly to
thank this committee for holding these hearings. I understand
this is the second of three hearings on the topic, and I think
it is very appropriate.
I am on a different committee, but this topic has been of
great interest to our bipartisan Caucus for Women's Issues.
And, over the years, this topic has come up, as different
members on this committee who are part of our caucus have
brought the issue forward.
I am very heartened by the fact that branches of the
service are reaching to us to help, perhaps, provide resources,
but at least provide the setting of a hearing.
And I can now address you more in my background as a former
school nurse in a public health capacity in my community.
Working with high school students, these are the young people
who then appear at the recruiter's office. And we can't
detect--I mean, this is a challenge for us, starting with young
kids and working with families to support a topic that is so
very important as they raise their children who will then
become adults in whatever capacity.
And, as they join the military, this is one of many areas
of very major concern, particularly now in Iraq and
Afghanistan, as we see so many women joining in, which we
believe they should, with their male counterparts in combat.
The stressors, I believe, probably, although I am not an expert
on this, only increase the tensions and the pressures.
So, in many respects, I guess I would say, first of all,
this is the kind of dialogue I hope that we can continue in
Congress. And if there is any way--I am no longer Co-Chair of
the Women's Caucus, but many of us outside the Armed Services
Committee are very interested in making sure that this is
something--it is a burden, in a way, and a responsibility that
you are carrying, but you are, in a way, carrying it on behalf
of all of us.
You are at the point in your work, in the line of your
mission, where we are asking you to be leaders and to work with
the lay community, civilians, to address an issue that faces
every family in every community, every law enforcement, every
aspect of our society, and yet it is in this very intense
setting with hierarchies and with orders to follow and with
missions to carry out. We must share the responsibility with
you, as a civil society, and yet we do expect a great deal from
you, as our most precious resources, our sons and daughters,
are entrusted to your care.
So I don't really have a question to ask you, but if you
want to respond in some way, you know, perhaps even to say to
our public schools, ``What are you doing to help us? Because we
are working with you, and you with us, to prepare the
generations that are called upon in ways, you know, that maybe
previous generations have not experienced in quite that same
way.''
So I am here to salute the committee, first and foremost,
and to say I think this is a very, very significant set of
hearings that you are conducting. And I am very mindful that
there is a larger role that the military is representing that I
want to make sure we all carry our share of responsibility for.
So thank you very much.
I will be happy to hear--although you may want to move on
with the hearing, too, Madam Chair.
Mr. Loebsack. No, I would like to hear any response, as
well. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Capps.
Ms. Collins. Ma'am, if I may, I would like to answer your
question or at least give you an idea of what the Army is
working with, as well as with DOD and our sister services.
We are working with the Department of Education, Health and
Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, and others,
Department of Justice, as we work through our efforts. We are
working with our schoolhouses that we are engaged with with the
military, down to the junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps
(ROTC) level, as well as our ROTC programs throughout the
colleges, with this program.
And we are introducing training that will assess attitudes
and behaviors before individuals take our training. And then,
after they take the training, we know where we would like to
take them, again, back to that bond of core values that the
Army has that they expect their individuals--all of our
individuals to have. And, as Ranking Member Wilson said, you
know, that the broader spectrum, he would like everyone to look
at this issue in.
So, for us, it is a partnership with not only our national
experts but our national agencies, as well, as we address this
social problem. And we are going to have those individuals with
our summit, as well as our sister services and DOD. And the
Sexual Assault Advisory Council DOD holds has those members on
it as well, and we all participate in working groups with them.
Mrs. Davis. I am going to turn to Mr. Murphy because we are
going to be pushed here in terms of time.
Mr. Murphy.
And then after Mr. Murphy, let's see, we have Ms. Sanchez.
I guess that is it, and we will try and wrap up this panel and
go to the next one. I had hoped that we would have another
round, but I think that we have had a chance to have a larger
group here today, and that is a good thing.
So, thank you.
Mr. Murphy. Thanks, Chairwoman Davis. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for all your testimony and especially for
that video, which was terrific.
I used to be a prosecutor in the Army Judge Advocate
General (JAG) Corps, so unfortunately I had a lot of these
cases. And I was also a professor at West Point. And that was
another thing, when sex assaults happened at our military
academies, and because a lot of times it involves underaged
drinking, and, you know, whether or not you should prosecute
for the underlying offense, or potential underlying offense,
there.
I want to focus, though, there should be no doubt no
service member, whether male or female, should ever be a victim
of a sexual assault or harassment. And we should all agree that
it is important not only to set up the programs to prevent such
incidents from occurring but also to set up effective systems
for helping victims and prosecuting offenders after the fact.
And I do appreciate all of your efforts on that.
One issue, though, that concerns me that I don't think was
addressed: Under the current don't-ask, don't-tell policy right
now in the military, isn't there a possibility that a
homosexual service member who was assaulted or harassed might
be afraid to come forward and file a report for fear that he or
she would be discharged? Is there a concern that many same-sex
sexual assaults go unreported?
Kind of like my analogy to what happened in the military
academy with underaged drinking, but in a broader scheme in our
services with don't-ask, don't-tell. And I would appreciate if
the panel could address that.
Whoever wants to go first.
Ms. Collins. Yes, sir. For the Army, we are not aware of
any data indicating that the don't-ask, don't-tell policy is--
that, under the policy, there are any individuals who are not
coming forward that have been assaulted.
I will say that we do receive assaults of male victims
within the Army, and we encourage those, as we do with our
female victims. We want to encourage our propensity to report
across the services for all victims. We know this is the most
underreported crime in the Nation, and the data tells us it is
more underreported by male victims than female victims.
So, again, we are trying to build that trust factor within
the military so all victims of sexual assault come forward and
report the crime, so we can not only give the victim care,
which is paramount, but also pursue the offender with
prosecution.
Mr. Murphy. Ms. Collins, do you have any anecdotal stories
you can share on that issue though in the Army? Or, nothing?
Ms. Collins. No, sir. I don't get individual case data. I
get roll-up data but not individual case data.
Mr. Murphy. How about any thought of immunity if it is a
same-sex type of thing or, I mean, even if it is under-age
drinking in the military? You know, in Pennsylvania, the
drinking age is 21. If they are at Carlisle Barracks or
anywhere else in Pennsylvania, you know, some type of immunity
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), or is there
any thought process to that?
Ms. Collins. We do have within our policy, sir, it does
speak to commanders giving first consideration of delaying any
kind of collateral misconduct charges against a potential
victim to encourage them to come forward and report the crime
and for commanders to look at that very strongly. Because we
are educating commanders across the board that it is paramount
that we do have victims come forward, and they need to do so
without the fear of the collateral misconduct charge,
potentially.
Mr. Murphy. Thanks, Ms. Collins.
Anyone else like to address that? Ms. Robertson.
Ms. Robertson. Thank you, sir.
We also have male victims, and we have not seen a time that
the don't-ask, don't-tell policy is a problem for them coming
forward. We respond to victims, whether male or female. I agree
with what Ms. Collins said, that it is probably more
underreported for males. But we have had male victims in the
past and continue to do so, and provide them the same level of
care and services.
We also address collateral misconduct. It has been our Navy
policy since 1996, encourage commanders to provide the
responsive care to victims and look at the issues with alcohol
at a later time.
We also, as you probably know, have the restricted
reporting option for all the services, which allows a victim to
come forward without reporting it to command or investigation.
And some of those may probably, and do, involve alcohol. But we
want to make it a safe place for victims to come forward and
get the care they need, as well as be able to change to
unrestricted so we can investigate and prosecute and look at
offender accountability.
Mr. Murphy. Can I just--that restricted reporting, would
that just be for, like, an underlying offense, such as underage
drinking or some other misconduct, would that also apply to
potential violations of don't-ask, don't-tell policy, that
restricted reporting, so it wouldn't go through the chain of
command, so it wouldn't be a Chapter 15?
Ms. Robertson. Sir, we don't look at it as the don't-ask,
don't-tell policy. We look at it--we are a victim-based
program. So when a victim comes forward, we accept their report
of sexual assault or sexual misconduct, and we provide them
services, an array of services--medical, counseling, advocacy--
and we don't get into the specifics of what happened in the
incident. We really try very hard to just respond to the
victim, make sure they have the care that they need, and then
if they are willing to have an unrestricted report, that it is
investigated and taken to the level it needs to go to.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you very much.
Ms. Sanchez.
Ms. Sanchez. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for
having this series of hearings.
As you know, I have been pretty active in this whole issue
of domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault in
the military. And, you know, I want to go back to the three
things I think that we do on this committee in trying to change
this.
The first is to change the culture, which, of course, is
the most difficult to do.
The second would be that the laws are effective when we go
to prosecute the people, not only as a deterrence but to
actually take care of some of these people who are doing this.
And I know that we did that when we changed the UCMJ a couple
of years ago, and it has now been implemented. And many of the
prosecutors at the level that Mr. Murphy was talking about say
that it is working.
And, of course, the third is the response; how do we treat
the victims and what do we do for them?
I want to go back to one of the questions that was asked
about surveys or asking this whole issue about should women
even be in the military. And it is my understanding, at the
academies in particular, that we were trying to do a sexual
assault sort of survey every single year at the academy, and
that was sort of pushed back to maybe once every two years
because the comment from most of the cadets at the academies
were that we were asking way too many times, way too many
questions about sexual harassment and sexual assault and all of
this.
So my question would be, within the academies, do you know
if in all of the surveys that we have our cadets do, which tend
to be between three and four a year, if the questions about
``do you believe that women should be in the academy or not''
are still on those surveys? Is that question not being asked?
And then what type of surveys, if any, with respect to
this, do we take within the active forces, at least even here
in the continental United States? Does anybody have any
knowledge of that?
Mr. Bruneau. Thank you, Congresswoman Sanchez.
The Marine Corps's Equal Opportunity Office within the
Manpower Division conducts a survey, normally biennially, on
the climate--command climate assessment. And, at our request
back in 2005, with the advent of restricted reporting--we must
remember that this is a relatively young program, and
developing all of the pieces and the mechanics that go into its
success takes a little bit of time. And then to measure
effectiveness, you have to be able to wait for some results.
So we asked them in 2005 to include specific questions in
their survey dealing with sexual assault. The survey itself is
more focused towards sexual harassment.
Ms. Sanchez. And I understand that, because I have actually
gone through the surveys, and I have spent a lot of time on
this issue. But my question is the very basic question that was
asked by one of my colleagues: Do women belong in the military?
I mean, are we asking that question?
Because if we want a culture change, it begins with ``women
belong in the military.'' And at the time, I think it was with
the Air Force Academy, we asked that question, and we found
that almost a third of the male cadets said, ``Hell no, women
don't belong here.''
So my question is, are we asking that? Do we continue to
ask that to see if even the very basic issue of should women be
in the military--because that, I think, leads into diminishing
and less respect for the woman, whether she is at an academy or
whether she is in the services.
Mr. Bruneau. I am sorry, ma'am, then I misunderstood the
question. The Marine Corps does not have a service academy. I
wouldn't be qualified, really, to respond to that. So I would
have to defer to my sister services.
Ms. Sanchez. Anybody have the answer----
Ms. Bradley. I will respond to that.
Ms. Sanchez [continuing]. To that? And if you don't, then
we need to talk to somebody to see if it is happening.
Ms. Bradley. I am reasonably sure that the Air Force
Academy does still have those attitude questions on their
surveys. And in the classes on character and the numerous
classes that they now receive dealing with sexual assault,
those very issues are addressed. The basic attitude toward an
individual, respect, behaviors that we have, have to be
addressed in order for this to go away. They are addressing it,
ma'am.
Ms. Sanchez. Do you have any comments, Ms. Collins?
Ms. Collins. Ma'am, I am not aware that those questions are
currently in the surveys at the academy. I would be certainly
happy to take that back and ask that question. That would
probably come under our Equal Opportunity Office at the academy
itself, and I would certainly work that coordination to find
out those answers.
Ms. Sanchez. Great. I would appreciate that.
And then, this is with respect to the report that was done
on the Coast Guard, in particular. The Government
Accountability Office (GAO) came back with the report that some
commanders actually were resistant to advertising programs or
options for reporting sexual assault in barracks and work
areas, et cetera.
Within your individual services, how often do you find a
commander who doesn't understand how important this issue is
and actually pushes back on training programs, advertising,
noticing, bringing up the issue, et cetera? Can you speak to
that, any of you?
Ms. Robertson. Congresswoman Sanchez, thank you for that
question.
Navy senior leadership takes it very seriously, the sexual
assault program and the reporting options, as well as domestic
violence. We have done massive marketing. Our sexual assault
response coordinators are putting up fliers all the time.
The GAO report did talk about one location where they were
taken down. We did some investigation to find out what is going
on. It happened to be, what we call, Public-Private Venture
(PPV) housing, the type of housing. There are certain places
that posters need to be hung up. So we want to make sure that
the word is out, that the posters are up, that the information
is out throughout the commands.
We took all the GAO recommendations very seriously. And the
restricted reporting options from the top down, from senior
leadership, they do know about it. I personally briefed the
senior shore station leaders, and we spend most of our
conversation--I have 30 minutes, and it usually goes to an
hour--about the reporting options, providing response to
victims in our program, and making sure that there are messages
from the leadership from the top down in every location.
Mr. Bruneau. And, ma'am, in the Marine Corps, the
commandant and our senior leadership and, indeed, all the
leadership in the Marine Corps takes this subject very
seriously. And the commandant has directed the inspector
general of the Marine Corps to include assessment of compliance
with our policies as part of their unit and command
inspections.
I personally have been involved in 18 of those major
inspections. And at each one of those thus far, they have been
found to be mission capable. And I have not run into one yet
where I have experienced any type of pushback from a commander.
Those inspections include an interview, a personal interview
between myself and the commander.
So I have not seen that. I have not seen any of those units
within the Marine Corps that have been inspected yet that have
failed to comply with our policies.
Ms. Bradley. Ma'am, I think we all have to realize that
this is continuing education. We knew so little when we went
into this about how complex this is. Restricted reporting is
brand-new to our commanders. They are held responsible for what
they know and what they don't know.
So, to get resistance from a commander about restricted
reporting might be a very common thing, because they want to
know you are going to hold them responsible for prosecuting
whoever has done this. So they want to know that.
I would say that would be the only question we get
sometimes from commanders, is, you know, is this restricted
reporting really helping me? And the answer is: Because then
the people are getting help. Our senior leadership, I watched
General Schwartz look every vice wing commander in the Air
Force in the eye in late December and say, ``You better get
it.'' And he said it in very strong terms.
We have folks who go to our squadron commander school, to
our group commander school, and the message is there. I feel,
on the whole, our commanders are getting it and they are
supporting it. And when I listen to them talk, I am thrilled
about it.
But we are going to keep continuing to educate at all
levels.
Ms. Sanchez. How about Ms. Collins?
Ms. Collins. Yes, ma'am. And for the Army, this has
obviously been in our schoolhouse for a long time now. We have
been training our commanders, and they have been implementing
the program, and our IG has done an inspection on our programs
as well, in addition to the GAO and other reviews we have had.
I am not aware of any commander pushing back. I will say
that, in our summit in September 2008, when we launched our new
prevention initiatives in our first phase of committed army
leadership, the Secretary and the Chief were very adamant about
their expectations for commanders in this area. Each of the
commanders did go back and immediately start implementing their
command prevention programs.
And the Secretary and the Chief personally went out to many
senior-leader training forums this past fall to reinforce that
message, as they trained all the senior leaders across the
Army. And we have also done a midpoint review assessment up to
the Secretary in January of where they are in implementing that
first phase, and we will do a final review input to the
Secretary as well.
Ms. Sanchez. Thank you for your indulgence, Madam Chair.
And thank you for being before us.
Mrs. Davis. I want to thank all of you for being here.
I think there are still many questions that we have. We
probably didn't focus on the exact, you know, changes in the
program as much as we might have liked. Obviously, time makes
it not possible to do that.
We do have a number of questions that we would like to
follow up with, so that you can give us a better idea, for
example, how you are doing more interactive work, what is
happening there. I know, in terms of the Navy, I am curious
about how the ombuds people are really focusing and working
with you. What role do they have in this? And are there areas
in which maybe it is not even appropriate for them to be
involved? I think just down the line there are a number of
questions.
But we certainly appreciate your frankness here. I think
the real test of all of this, of course, is the men and women
who serve and whether they think that people are getting it and
whether they think that they are being treated in a way that
demonstrates that respect. And the idea that this is so
critical to mission is one that is shared throughout the
services, that it is important, the way that we treat people
every day out in the field or whether they are on bases,
wherever that may be.
We appreciate your being here. We will have a follow-up
panel just a few minutes after we come back. And it is
important to look to outside experts, to have them either
validate or share where the challenges are perhaps not being
met in a way that is appropriate. And we are certainly
interested in hearing from them, as well.
I hope members can come back. And, if not, we certainly
will make that testimony available to everybody.
Thank you very much.
[Recess.]
Mrs. Davis. Hello.
For our second panel today, we have Dr. Kaye Whitley,
director of the Department of Defense's Sexual Assault
Prevention and Response Office. The office serves as the
Department's single point of accountability for all sexual
assault policy matters and reports to the Under Secretary of
Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
Dr. Whitley has previously testified before this
subcommittee, and we welcome you back.
Dr. Whitley. Thank you.
Mrs. Davis. Next is Dr. John Foubert, associate professor
and program coordinator for the College Student Development
Program at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Foubert is an expert
in sexual assault prevention programs, with a great deal of
experience and research that looks at changing the behaviors of
men to prevent assaults.
Welcome. Thank you.
And, finally, Mr. David Lee, director of prevention
services for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
One of his focuses has been on the development of community
responses to end violence against women, which is relevant to
our discussions today. In addition, he currently manages
Prevention Connection, a national online project to advance
primary prevention of violence against women.
Thank you all very much for being here.
Dr. Whitley, could you start? Thank you.
STATEMENT OF DR. KAYE WHITLEY, DIRECTOR, SEXUAL ASSAULT
PREVENTION AND RESPONSE OFFICE (SAPRO), DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Dr. Whitley. Chairwoman Davis, Ranking Member Wilson, and
members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
speak with you today about sexual assault prevention in the
Department of Defense.
As you observed at the hearing in January, we have a
devoted group of sexual assault response coordinators and
victim advocates that work at installations worldwide to care
for our victims.
And today you have heard from their dedicated leadership,
and I want to publicly thank each and every one of them for
their outstanding service to our military men and women. I am
fortunate to have their support and expertise, as we continue
to institutionalize our program.
I am also honored to share the panel today with two of our
of Nation's experts on this topic.
We are proud of the improvements the Department has made in
our response to sexual assault. However, I think we can all
agree that it would be better if these crimes never occurred.
The Department's comprehensive prevention efforts really
began in the summer of 2007 at a prevention summit in
partnership with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
We invited over 100 civilian and military experts to help us
map a course to prevent sexual assault.
The participants at the summit developed three
recommendations for a successful prevention strategy: First,
the Department should implement lasting sexual assault
prevention measures by using a framework that takes action at
all levels of military society. Secondly, the Department should
use a social marketing campaign to link together all of its
efforts to prevent sexual assault. And lastly, the Department
should focus on using bystander intervention techniques in its
prevention efforts.
The military services used these points to begin
development of their own prevention programs. However, the
Department believes that prevention can only occur with an
organized, comprehensive approach that is based on research.
So, consequently, during 2008, the Department collaborated once
again with the Nation's experts to develop our prevention
strategy.
Our strategy is built on what is called the ``Spectrum of
Prevention.'' This nationally recognized framework has been
used in other prevention campaigns across the country. My
written testimony details its components. But, in short, the
``Spectrum of Prevention'' suggests that social harm can only
be prevented by taking multiple actions at every level of a
society. The levels of the spectrum range from improving
individual skills at the lowest level to influencing policy at
the highest levels.
A supporting social marketing campaign will debut in April
2009 for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Social marketing, as
you know, uses advertising concepts and techniques to persuade
people to behave in ways that improve their own personal
welfare and that of society. The campaign makes it very clear
that each military member has a moral duty to step up and take
action to prevent sexual assault.
This initial campaign is designated to do two things:
First, it informs our members about the Sexual Assault
Prevention and Response Program. And second, it demonstrates
key points in the bystander intervention approach to sexual
assault prevention. This strategy is a transformative process
that will require commitment, cooperation, and, quite frankly,
time and patience. The kind of change we wish to effect is much
like what we saw with the drunk-driving campaign or racial
integration in the military.
As we begin our campaign, we fully expect the number of
reports of sexual assaults to increase. In fact, that is a goal
of the Department, to increase the reports of sexual assault.
As the comprehensive prevention strategy takes hold over the
years, we look forward to the day that those numbers decrease,
not because of fear or stigma of reporting, but because sexual
assault is being systematically prevented.
I would like to show you two of our public service
announcements (PSAs) today that were developed by our partners
from Men Can Stop Rape. Mr. Steve Glaude and Dr. Pat McGann
have worked very closely with my deputy, Lieutenant Colonel
Nate Galbreath, who is a clinical psychologist and used those
skills to pull together our campaign. These are just two of the
PSAs that we will be using in April.
[Video played.]
Dr. Whitley. And there is a second one.
[Video played.]
Dr. Whitley. Thank you. That concludes my opening
statement. Thank you again for this opportunity.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Whitley can be found in the
Appendix on page 98.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
Dr. Foubert.
STATEMENT OF DR. JOHN D. FOUBERT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND
PROGRAM COORDINATOR, COLLEGE STUDENT DEVELOPMENT MASTER'S
PROGRAM, OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
Dr. Foubert. Thank you, Representative Davis,
Representative Wilson, and members of the House Armed Services
Subcommittee on Military Personnel. My name is John Foubert. I
am an associate professor of college student development at
Oklahoma State University, here to speak as an expert witness
on the issue of sexual assault prevention.
I am an academic researcher and program developer on the
issue of sexual violence. In 1998, I founded the national
nonprofit organization One in Four, a 501(c)(3) public
nonprofit dedicated to ending rape and sexual assault on our
Nation's college campuses and in the military by using whatever
methods have been shown most effective by research.
There are many ways to approach the issue of sexual assault
in the military. We can ignore it and pretend that it rarely
happens. Alternatively, we can focus on doing all that we can
to help survivors recover from the trauma that they have
experienced.
This is a more enlightened perspective, but by itself it
does nothing to address the root of the problem. We can focus
on prosecuting the heck out of all offenders and lock them up
forever, and, although I admire the sentiment behind this
approach, it is woefully inadequate. Survivors of rape rarely
report what they have experienced for a wide variety of
reasons, both within and outside the military. And research
shows that the harshest of prosecutions does nothing to
convince potential perpetrators to alter their behavior.
To get something done, you have to go to the root of the
problem, and you have to fight the battle of prevention. To do
it best, you must follow where the research leads you. The
United States Armed Forces can provide all the services to
survivors imaginable, and they should. You can lock up all of
the rapists forever, and that would be just. But we will not
begin to put a dent in the problem of rape in the military
until there is a decision made to use the best data-driven
methods available to prevent rape and other forms of sexual
assault from happening in the first place.
Until that time, we are simply in an endless cycle of
consolation and punishment, with no end in sight. And,
honestly, most of the people who need consoling are not getting
served because they fear the stigma of being a survivor. And
the overwhelming majority of those who should be punished
aren't even getting confronted, because, like elsewhere in our
society, the last thing most survivors want to do is go through
a daunting process.
When you look at the data on sexual assault, a chilling
statistic repeats itself over and over again: one in four. One
in four college women have experienced rape or attempted rape
at some point in their lifetime. This statistic was the initial
impetus for the founding of the nonprofit organization that
bears the same name, One in Four.
However, there is another one-in-four statistic that I want
you all to hear very clearly. And if there is nothing else that
you get from me today, please hear this: A study was released
in 2005 of female U.S. military veterans, both officers and
enlisted. And it found that over one in four experienced rape
or attempted rape during their military service. Please also
hear this: 96 percent of the perpetrators were military
personnel.
So when you meet women in the military today, please
remember that the consequences of us doing nothing at this
point, the status quo, is that one in four will be raped by
someone else in our own military. I think that is unacceptable;
what do you think?
I hope you think these statistics are alarming, and I hope
you don't take my word for it on their validity. I brought a
copy of the study I just referenced with me, and I left it with
your staff, Mr. Kildee. I hope you will read it for yourself.
These numbers are why you need to focus on prevention
programming. Not all approaches to prevention programming are
created equally. There are a lot of good ideas out there that,
honestly, do little, if anything, to prevent a single rape. The
encouraging news is that there is now data to separate the
merely good ideas from the approaches that are proven to make a
difference.
For the last 16 years, a team of researchers has worked to
design a rape prevention program called ``The Men's Program.''
According to the research, ``The Men's Program'' is the only
program in history where men who see it subsequently commit
less sexual assault than men who don't. It is the only program
ever to document behavior change in sexual assault committed by
young adult men. In controlled studies, those who see ``The
Men's Program'' commit only about half as much sexual assault
as those who don't see the program. Those who see the program,
if they do commit an act of sexual assault, commit an act that
is much, much less severe than those who don't see the program.
These are the kinds of research results that make
professors like me do a little victory dance when we see our
data charts come off the computer printer.
The field of rape prevention has experienced major
breakthroughs recently. And I can't sit before you today and
say that we can eliminate rape in the military. However, I can
say with confidence that, with the right research-based and
proven methods and targeted resources, our military can
decimate the rate of rape in its midst. It just takes a
sustained commitment to prevention programming, the resources,
and the will to get it done.
The data on rape in the military speaks for itself. The
data on our ability to prevent it does so as well. I look
forward to your questions to provide any information possible
on how we can all work together to create a steep decline in
rape in the armed services and to see that happen with all due
speed, because, after all, our women and men in uniform deserve
nothing less.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Foubert can be found in the
Appendix on page 115.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you, Dr. Foubert.
Mr. Lee.
STATEMENT OF DAVID S. LEE, MPH, DIRECTOR OF PREVENTION
SERVICES, CALIFORNIA COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT (CALCASA)
Mr. Lee. Chairwoman Davis, Ranking Member Wilson, and other
members of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, thank you
for the privilege of providing testimony about the efforts to
prevent violence in the armed services.
My name is David Lee, and I have been active in the efforts
to prevent sexual violence and other forms of violence against
women over the last 26 years. It is my honor to currently serve
as the director of prevention services of the California
Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), one of the largest
and oldest associations of sexual assault programs in the
Nation.
While we have always identified addressing the needs of
those who have been sexually assaulted as necessary, we
recognize that the problem of sexual assault is not one only of
individual incidents, but also of a culture which allows sexual
assault to flourish. And so I was heartened to hear earlier
each of the services talk about how they will address that
culture.
Based on our experience in working in California, CALCASA
was selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
to develop our project, Prevention Connection, which is the
leading online resource on sexual violence prevention, drawing
on experiences and knowledge gained by professionals within the
rape crisis movement, public health practitioners, and
research.
Throughout my career, I have been involved in a variety of
prevention efforts, working to identify the best practices and
evidence-based strategies. In California, we conducted what
was, at its time, the largest social marketing campaign to
prevent sexual violence, the My Strength Campaign, which
adapted Men Can Stop Rape's programs to meet the populations in
California and be able to engage young men to speak out and
stand up against sexual assault.
I do not need to explain to you all about the epidemic of
sexual violence. Your hearings have done great service to all
of us to bring attention to this issue. And we recognize that
sexual violence in the military is not unlike sexual violence
in other segments of our society. It reflects not only
individual's experiences but reflects this culture that I
talked about that condones sexual violence and, importantly,
minimizes the responsibility of all members of our society or
community to take any action to prevent it.
The military has a unique opportunity to be able to take
action to change those cultural factors and be able to
encourage people to be able to speak out and take actions to be
able to make change.
What we have seen is that the military has begun to raise
awareness about sexual assault, establish policies and
procedures to make services available. Those are essential.
However, developing services for those who have been abused is
not sufficient to end sexual violence.
Data from a variety of research informs sexual violence
prevention work. Research has identified risk factors for
victimization and perpetration. What we want to be able to
focus on is how can we promote the protective factors and be
able to address the negative social and environmental
contributors that are important components to a public health
approach to be able to prevent sexual violence.
Some sexual violence prevention work seeks to alert
potential victims to the risks they face from potential
assault. While there is some value in this risk-reduction
education, fundamentally it is insufficient to be able to
prevent actual abuse. Without proper attention to the full
context of sexual assault, risk-reduction activities may
inappropriately hold victims of sexual assault responsible for
not protecting themselves, such as, ``You shouldn't have put
yourself in that situation.''
To address sexual violence prevention in a truly
comprehensive manner, strategies to prevent its initial
perpetration, known as primary prevention, must have the same
level of commitment as programs that respond to its
consequences.
A promising approach, what we can see from the research,
for prevention is look at the bystander intervention effort.
Based on this and other issues, work that has been initially
done, we have embraced this strategy within sexual violence
prevention. Instead of approaching people as potential victims
of sexual assault or potential perpetrators of sexual violence,
bystander intervention will approach people within a community
as potential actors who can intervene in situations to the
environment that may lead to sexual assault and intervene in
situations that may lead to abuse.
As this is developed, it is essential, the partnership
between the military and prevention practitioners, to be able
to enhance efforts. We have been doing work for over 35 years
within the sexual violence prevention field. Our initial
efforts didn't work. We had to learn lessons, and we had to be
able to refine this. As you are working on developing efforts
within the Armed Forces, we will recognize that we need to
learn lessons and adapt that learning curve.
Over the last several years, the Department of Defense and
several branches of the military have solicited input from
CALCASA and other prevention practitioners, and we feel this is
very important.
This change requires making shifts in the culture to
promote a culture where soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines
identify taking action to prevent sexual violence as a core
concept of being in the military.
We recognize that sexual violence is a problem throughout
our society, not only within military services, and I expect
that armed services can make a difference to address a serious
problem within its ranks, just as it made racist behavior
unacceptable within its ranks.
Mr. Lee. I am heartened to know that there have been
important steps to address this issue within armed services. I
am also aware there is much more to do to intervene when
assault takes place as well as prevent this beforehand. Thank
you for your attention, and I hope that we can continue to be
of assistance in making next steps.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lee can be found in the
Appendix on page 123.]
Mrs. Davis. Thank you very much.
I know we really appreciate having individuals like
yourselves who have really looked at this program, not just in
terms of the military but also in terms of colleges,
universities and many other groups.
Dr. Foubert, if I could just start with you because I think
that what you said is quite dramatic. And we certainly
appreciate that. Could you, and I will ask Mr. Lee as well,
assess, a thumbnail assessment of the videos that you saw and
the general approach that is being taken? And if you feel that
the data collection that was discussed, and there may be a lot
of details of that that you are not aware of, but generally
speaking, are people kind of on the right track? And I ask
about the videos because, as I watch them as well, and I
understand that this is just a snippet, this is just a small
piece of it, but I am just wondering, do those really resonate
with the men and women who are watching them? And are we using
our men and women to create those kinds of messages and videos?
And if not, I think, why not? Aren't they the best ones to do
that?
Dr. Foubert. I think there are a couple of questions there.
To start with, an assessment of the videos. The approach
that I use to prevention programming is to look specifically at
the research on what shows works best, not necessarily to what
I think, well, I think this might work or appeal to my better
instincts, but to say, what research studies would say that
this approach works? And so when I compare research studies on
what tends to work in rape prevention programming to the videos
that I saw, I see a fairly large disconnect.
I don't think that the videos, by and large, that we saw
today, are in line with what is good practice in rape
prevention programming. I think that the production quality of
the videos is good. I think of the ones that we saw, the public
service announcements, the little snippets, show the most
promise. And I think they show the most promise in the sense
that those videos can reinforce bystander intervention
messages. And I think the value of any of those videos could be
to reinforce other messages that are received within any of the
branches of the military.
But I think the videos, and you did mention the fact that
what we saw was snippets not the whole thing, and so I should
certainly make it clear, I didn't see the whole thing, but
there was enough at least in some of them for me to say
definitively I can think of six studies off the top of my head
and one case that would say they were diametrically opposed to
what research shows works best, let alone whether they would
pass muster with your 19-year-old enlisted man in the Army. So
I think what the military needs to do is to take a look at,
here is what the research shows works best in terms of outcomes
of lowering rape and lowering rape behavior and use that to
inform prevention approaches. That might include a video; it
might not. But I think there is a ways to go, at least in terms
of the information that is included in the videos I saw.
Although I am glad they are trying.
Mrs. Davis. Mr. Lee, did you want to comment on those?
Mr. Lee. Yes. We believe that it is important. And in the
input that I have given to the Department of Defense and to
some of the branches, we have talked about the value of a
social marketing approach, and I appreciate that they are
taking that. I do also believe though that media itself does
not change behavior, and there is very little evidence of the
media itself. The question is, ``What is the context that the
media is being used in? What are the forms of training,
education and, more importantly, policies and procedures that
are in place that will then lead to changes that actually take
place?''
The Armed Services actually know how to change culture.
They change culture all the time in the way that they prepare
people to be within their community. And they take that. And we
need to draw on it as lessons. So I am heartened to see the
appeal to military values that we saw, for example, in the Army
program that that is a strong way to be able to resonate and be
able to move forward. The media itself can't create the change,
but it can reinforce messaging.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
I just want to ask a little bit more about the root problem
that you see. And we asked earlier about military culture, and
obviously, we recruit young men and women who are able to do
things that a lot of people in our population are not
comfortable doing, and they are nurtured and educated to do
that. And yet some of that may go against what we are talking
about right here. We might call it macho behavior, whatever
that may be. And yet with the panel earlier we didn't really
hear that as an obstacle to getting out this message. Could you
address that?
Dr. Foubert. The problem in our society that leads to rape?
There certainly is a problem in our society that leads to rape
in terms of how we raise men and what behaviors are acceptable.
And there are somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen, two
dozen characteristics of men who are more likely to rape than
other men. And there is this culture of masculinity, one-
upmanship. Men who are more likely to rape tend to drink more.
They tend to be more hypermasculine. They tend to have
characteristics that tend to be more associated with men who go
into the military.
So you start with a biased sample, from a researcher's
perspective, going into the military. So it is not surprising
that you might have more of an issue with rape in the military
than your average company, organization, those sorts of thing.
The biggest problem I see with rape in the military right now
is the military needs to be using more research-based
approaches in its approach to rape prevention. There is some
dabbling with some approaches that have support from one theory
or another or have been shown to change knowledge, but you
don't change behavior by changing knowledge, and so I think
there needs to be more work done in that. I think there is
significant sincere interest among many people in the military
in addressing this problem, and I applaud that. And I think
that there are some really good souls who are trying to do
their best. I think we need to move forward with research-based
approaches that have shown positive outcomes. Like I said,
there have been breakthroughs in rape prevention research just
in the last few years. We need to start applying those to the
military because we can do that, do that successfully and start
addressing this problem.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I hope we
will have a chance to get back to some of those issues.
Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
And Dr. Whitley, thank you so much for being here. I also
want to commend the people that you work with in the earlier
panel, a number of professional people, who obviously are very
caring, compassionate and competent. As I think of military
service, to me, it is an extraordinary ability, uplifting
opportunity for young people to serve through education,
through meeting very competent and capable and patriotic fellow
citizens by travel.
I just got back two weeks ago from visiting with people in
my home state who are serving in Guam, serving in Korea,
serving in Okinawa, Japan. I was green with envy. I was so
happy for them to have opportunities that I didn't know
existed, and so I am very pleased about military service.
It was stated earlier that, being in the military, that
some people join to be a part of a family. And I know that has
been the experience with us. That it is a family. And it is
also establishing lifelong friends. And so that goes to the
point that you made that it is a moral duty to report. That
would be not consistent with fellow family members.
As you face the challenges of developing sexual assault
prevention policies and programs, what are the major challenges
that you have? Are there gaps in the programs, and what can we
do to help you address the gaps?
Dr. Whitley. Thank you for that question, Mr. Wilson.
First, it is a monumental task to begin with, because we
are talking about more than two million people that are
stationed all around the world. And there is really no step-by-
step guide for us to follow. I don't think there is anyone that
has ever done this on the scale that we are attempting to do
it.
As far as the gaps, I think Dr. Foubert just hit on the
main gap, is that what we had done to date did not
necessarily--it was not necessarily based on research. Some of
the videos that the service showed today, they were developed
probably in the last few years because they have been in place
for a while. The prevention strategy that we have just
completed and presented to our leadership is based on research.
And the two PSAs that Dr. Foubert said were getting closer to
what they should be were evidence-based. And so we are moving
in that direction.
We have a lot more to do, but we are not shy about reaching
out and asking for help. We held a second summit, I think I
have that in my testimony as well, in 2008. And we brought
together Men Can Stop Rape. We had Dr. Paul Schewe from the
University of Chicago; Dr. Antonia Abbey from Wayne State; and
Gail Stern from Catharsis Productions. We also worked with
CALCASA and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. And they
are all ready, willing and able to help us as we implement and
develop our prevention strategy.
Mr. Wilson. And I was impressed by the videos. I
particularly was impressed where it is persons of the same age
group, peer group, in effect, hopefully speaking to each other
instead of pontificating by persons of another age group.
And Dr. Foubert, I am very interested to hear about the
men's program. And so if you could tell us about this, and also
has any of this been picked up by the military?
Dr. Foubert. The men's program is a one-hour workshop
presented in a peer education format. And it is presented right
now mostly by college men to other college men. It is in place
on 40 college campuses across the country. And they define
rape. They then talk about how to help a sexual assault
survivor after they show a videotape that graphically describes
a rape situation, and then they talk about bystander
intervention.
The bystander intervention approach, which people have been
talking about here, was sort of the final thing that was added
to the program that really led to making the difference. What
we found through the research is that when men can understand
what rape might feel like, cast it in the light of, here is how
you help a friend recover from rape, so we want you to
understand what rape might feel like, but we are going to teach
it to you under the guise of it can happen to a friend of
yours, so we want you to understand what it might feel like,
and then here is what you can do if you see it in a situation
where it might actually happen. That combination of factors led
to the behavior change. And that was 16 years worth of research
to get to that point. So that is the men's program essentially.
And your question in a military context, I have worked with two
other consultants, Gail Stern and Christopher Kilmartin at the
United States Naval Academy. And we have worked for the last
three years, not only to implement the men's program at the
Naval Academy, but to put together 20 programs there over the
course of the four years that the midshipmen are there. There
is no institution of higher education in the United States who
has taken a more comprehensive approach to rape prevention than
the United States Naval Academy. They are taking this as
seriously as any college or university in the country. And part
of what they use is the men's program, but they use many others
as well. And so they are doing that. I am also talking right
now to folks in the United States Army about taking the program
both into Europe and to the United States, and we are in the
very, very late stages of those discussions.
Mr. Wilson. Well, thank you very much. And I am glad to
hear of the military cooperation. I particularly am grateful to
hear about the Naval Academy. I am the proud father of a
graduate of the Naval Academy, and so I do have a high regard.
Thank you very much.
Dr. Foubert. You are welcome.
Mrs. Davis. Ms. Shea-Porter.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Thank you. I would like to thank the
witnesses for staying around with us. This is very, very
important for our military men and women, and for us to
understand this better. I did have a couple of questions.
Dr. Foubert, I wanted to start with you. You said that
there were traits. Are those traits that we can search for and
identify before we recruit? Can you say what they are?
Dr. Foubert. You could. But the thing is someone could have
all of those traits and not be a rapist. Someone could have all
of those traits and not be someone who is going to commit a
rape. But yes there are those traits, and you could screen for
them. In some cases it would be, the screening tool would be
rather lengthy.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Well, my question would be, not
necessarily that we would be saying we are looking for this in
you, but when they come into the recruiting office, could it be
absorbed into a larger form where they fill out where you might
have a couple of flags? And what are those traits? Is that
something that a recruiter could learn to spot?
Dr. Foubert. Many of them are complex personality variables
that would take a sophisticated psychological test to get at.
And so I don't think you are--and this is not to disparage
military recruiters, but they would be something like a
sociopathic personalty disorder, which sociopaths by definition
are very good at hiding their motives. Someone who drinks and
gets drunk frequently could be an alcoholic, or they could be
someone who is also more likely to commit sexual assault. That
is an easy thing that someone can fake. There are, in the
research literature, roughly 15, 16 different variables that
have been found. I can get you all of that information
certainly. And if that would be of interest to you, I can do
that.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 132.]
Ms. Shea-Porter. I would appreciate that. After the first
panel, several of the women were standing there saying, we were
pretty good identifying just in our lives people that are
aggressive. And I wonder if that is something that we could
work more on.
Dr. Foubert. The one thing that I can say that I have used
as a screening tool when I interview, I talked before about
having 40 peer education groups on college campuses throughout
the country of men who present to other men about rape and
sexual assault, one of the things I screen for is their past
history and whether they have committed violence against women.
One of the questions I asked them is, ``Tell me about the time
in your life when you came the closest to behavior that met the
legal definition of sexual assault.'' And one of the first
things they say is, ``Well, I never raped anybody.'' Okay.
``Well, think of consent on a continuum of zero to 100, where
zero is, you have countersigned paperwork with your attorney
and hers and you have agreed to everything you are going to do
in advance, which never happens; 100 is rape. Tell me about the
time when it was a 5 or a 50 or somewhere in between, the one
time where there was that oops, where you didn't completely
have complete consent, tell me about that time.'' And so one of
the things I found there is that men will admit in some cases
to behavior that actually does meet the legal definition of
rape, but they don't understand that it does, or they will
admit to risky behavior. And I can pinpoint with them whether
or not they are at risk. And that actually has been the most
effective screening tool that I have used. And certainly if the
military wanted to use it, they would be free to do so.
Ms. Shea-Porter. Thank you.
And the other question was, you talked about the videos,
and I think I had the same response that maybe some will be
reached by that, and it was a great effort, but that I
suspected that most of those who were involved would not really
see themselves in that. So what about women, videos for women?
I don't even know if they are doing that. But are you aware of
a series of videos that women talk to women, which would be
more part of the prevention part in helping women to recognize
and identify possible predators before?
Dr. Foubert. I recently wrote a program for women on how to
recognize perpetrators, and we do use a video that shows
perpetrator behavior. And so, yes, there is such a program in
existence, and I wrote it. It is not geared though towards
blaming women for being a victim. And you have to be very
careful about that dynamic. But one of the things the research
has shown is that women are less likely to experience rape if
they are able to pick up on cues in men that make the men more
likely to commit sexual assault. And so one of the things that
we do in the program is to teach women more of the danger signs
in men for what makes them more likely to sexually assault
women. And one of the videos we showed was actually originally
filmed by Dr. David Lisak, who has been mentioned a couple of
times at this hearing, where he shows a scene that a man who
has committed rape acts that out. So we use that video, in
part, as a training tool for women to understand this is what a
rapist looks like, and we process that in many different ways.
Ms. Shea-Porter. And Dr. Whitley, I see you nodding. Is
there a film that you wanted to talk about, a video.
Dr. Whitley. We use the Lisak training as well in our
training throughout all the services. It is quite chilling.
Ms. Shea-Porter. And effective, measurably effective.
Dr. Whitley. And effective.
Ms. Shea-Porter. All right. Thank you.
Mr. Lee, did you want to add?
Mr. Lee. I would also add that in approaching women, look
at the bystander approach of being not just men, but also the
role that women can be able to play in creating an environment
where sexual assaults are not acceptable and not just putting
the burden on women to protect themselves, but to look at all
service members to be able to look at how, including women, on
how they can be able to do that.
And from a prevention standpoint, we really want to be able
to look at the bystander approach and how we can integrate that
into the work that we are able to do. I am skeptical of a magic
screening device that can be done on the scale of the military
recruiting, but I think there are ways that we should also be
looking at how we can bring people into the military who are
going to become active bystanders and be able to create the
values and the behaviors that we are expecting within the armed
services.
Ms. Shea-Porter. I will say that having kids that went to
college, I was amazed at how woefully unaware so many of these
students were on campus at not recognizing situations, possible
situations, not recognizing anything. So I think we need to
also beef that up, too. Thank you.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you very much. And we are just going to
have one or two questions. We are going to wrap up in just a
few minutes.
One of the things that was mentioned is the research and
what we know about the fact that many of the women who come
into sort of services have had prior sexual victimization. Do
you see that knowledge that we have about that playing itself
out in some of the work that is being done now? And is that
something that can be utilized or played down? How do you see
that so you know that, okay, they get that part of it? How do
we use that?
Dr. Foubert. One of the things that we know in the research
is that women who have been sexually assaulted before are more
likely than the average woman to be sexually assaulted again.
And so that is problematic from the perspective of, you are
more likely to be sexually assaulted again if you have been
sexually assaulted before. So you are dealing with, in the
military, a population of women who are, statistically
speaking, more likely to be sexually assaulted than the average
woman. So you are not only dealing with a population of men,
the research shows, coming into at least some branches of the
military who are more likely to commit sexual assault, you are
dealing with a population of women who are more likely to be
sexually assaulted. So you are coming in with a population that
is--you have a real problem. And so I think what that says is
you need to take that issue extremely seriously and much more
seriously than the average organization would, which means you
need to approach this as something that is just as serious as,
how do you load a gun? How do you sink in a submarine? How do
you do all of these things? And give the time to it that it
needs.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
Dr. Whitley, could you respond to that some, too? In your
role, are you provided the tools, the authorization, to really
push that issue a little bit more with the services as they are
working on their programs? How often does that come up? How
great a play is it?
Dr. Whitley. Well, one of the issues is that the program is
still
fairly new. And what we are finding as we interact with our
experts and as we implement pieces of our program and continue
down this path and have GAO investigations and defense task
forces and people looking at us a lot, we get a lot of
recommendations. So it is just growing by leaps and bounds. And
we are finding we need to do more and more, and we need to do
it better.
Mrs. Davis. Can I ask you to just follow up with a capacity
question in terms of the resources that you have? We have all
said that this costs the military an awful lot of money to deal
with this. And are we putting the resources there at the level
of expertise in your department that is going to actually be
able to provide the kind of care in this area that we need?
Dr. Whitley. I think we are moving in that direction. We
have budgeted out for five years. And we just took a new step
in terms of looking at exactly where the money goes. My
leadership asked each of the services to come back and let us
know how much they spend on victim care, how much they spend on
administering the program. And they have to break it down by
program element codes. And we have just recently gotten that
information, and we are analyzing it. And part of my oversight
role is to ensure that they are funded.
But we identify new requirements every day and continue to
request new resources. I do have full support of my leadership.
Secretary Gates has come on board as being very interested in
four areas. And those four areas are the training of
prosecutors and investigators and commanders and sustaining
that training, and also we are really looking closely at
stigma. And we have to get back to him with action plans on
those areas. So that is going to help having support all the
way down from the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF).
Dr. Foubert. Madam Chairwoman, if I may, over time I wonder
how much money the military could save if they did really
effective prevention programming, and there were less rapes
committed, and you had more women who weren't leaving the
military? How much does it cost when you train a woman to do a
specialized job and she leaves because she is sexually
assaulted? How does it affect troop morale? How does it affect
any number of things? And so if we can have fewer women
accessing services, how much does that cost?
Now, in the beginning when you implement a good rape-
prevention programming, reporting usually goes up. And so there
is the short-term cost going up, but long-term, it should go
down. So I think there is the short-term investment, but the
long-term gains can be so cost effective, not to mention the
fact that it is just the right thing to do.
Mrs. Davis. Right. Thank you. I couldn't have said it
better myself.
I want to thank you all so much for being here. I think
this has been very helpful. I know we have had discussions
outside the room as well today. And I certainly appreciate the
work that you are all doing. I think we all wholeheartedly
support the men and women in the military. We recognize that we
give them a very, very difficult job to do, and we want to be
sure that they are able to progress in an environment that is
healthy and safe for everyone. Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 1:00 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
March 6, 2009
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PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
March 6, 2009
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[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING
THE HEARING
March 6, 2009
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RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. WILSON
Ms. Robertson. Sexual Assault Victim Intervention (SAVI) Quick
Polls were conducted in 2004 and 2005 to determine baseline awareness
and perceptions of sexual assault in the Navy and of the SAVI program.
The 2008 SAVI Quick Poll was conducted to update the earlier polls, and
to provide current information to address recommendations from the GAO
report released in August 2008.
The standard Navy Quick Poll methodology developed by the Navy
Personnel Research Studies and Technology Laboratory (NPRST) was used.
The 2008 SAVI Quick Poll included questions adapted from the 2004 and
2005 SAVI Quick Polls; as well as newly added items on awareness of
restricted and unrestricted reporting of sexual assault (SA). Randomly
selected Sailors, stratified by officer/enlisted status and gender,
ensured adequate representation of officer and enlisted men and women.
Navy messages were sent to commands requesting selected personnel
complete the poll online at the Quick Poll website within 12 business
days. A reminder Navy message was sent midway through the fielding
period. The poll was deployed from 10 to 26 September 2008, and could
only be accessed once by the selected Navy personnel using correct
usernames/passwords. The response rate was 33% and the margins of error
were 4% or less for both enlisted and officers.
Summary
Compared to the 2004/5 polls, awareness of SAVI program
and services has increased.
Positive trends were found for all groups from
2004 to 2008 among both junior and senior personnel.
The percentages reporting both SA-related training
attendance and having attended SAVI training in the year prior also
increased:
Over 90% of enlisted personnel and over 80% of
officers attended SA training in the prior year.
All groups reported that the training increased
their awareness of SA-related issues.
Awareness of the Victims and Witness Assistance Program
(VWAP) declined from 2005 to 2008 (68% to 48% for officer women; 64% to
55% for enlisted women). A similar pattern was found regarding
awareness of VWAP for officer and enlisted men. For most groups,
awareness of other programs to assist victims of sexual assault, e.g.,
the SAVI program and the Civilian Rape Crisis Center, increased or
remained the same from 2005 to 2008.
Seventy percent or more were aware of restricted and
unrestricted reporting and one-third or more had seen flyers and
posters about the reporting options at their commands.
Two-thirds or more know to whom to report sexual
assault without command knowledge, i.e., how to make a
restricted report.
Over 90% believe SA is a criminal act and know what
actions are considered SA.
Eighty percent or more report that SA is not tolerated at
their command, know what to do if assaulted, and feel free to report
SA.
Half of enlisted women and 38% of officer women report
that SA is a problem in the Navy; under 20% of both groups report that
SA is occurring at their command.
More than 75% indicate that they would report SA to Navy
authorities.
Fear of not being believed, embarrassment, and
fear of public disclosure were key reasons for not
reporting.
Actionable Items
Incorporate poll results into SAVI training to
demonstrate positive gains and highlight areas needing improvement.
Determine reasons for decrease in Victims and Witness
Assistance Program awareness and, if appropriate, take steps to
increase awareness.
Develop Plan of Action to increase awareness of sexual
assault reporting options and address barriers to reporting sexual
assault.
Brief results to the Department of the Navy (DON) Sexual
Assault Advisory Committee (SAAC), U.S. Navy leadership at all
echelons, and the DOD Sexual Assault Advisory Council Subcommittee on
Research.
Conduct follow-up SAVI Quick Poll in 2010 to monitor
trends. [See page 13.]
______
RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. SHEA-PORTER
Ms. Robertson. Since February 2005, Army policy has prohibited the
enlistment or appointment (officer or enlisted) of any applicant
previously convicted of a violent sexual offense. Furthermore,
personnel separated as a result of the convicted sex offender policy
are ineligible to reenter the Army. Additionally, since January 2008,
every applicant for enlistment is automatically screened against the
National Sex Offender Public Registry. Those who are registered are not
allowed entry and do not make it past the individual recruiter in the
enlistment process.
To the best of our knowledge, after reviewing recruiting and
appointment records, the Army has not accessed anyone who was in
violation of Army or DOD policy. The Army does the very best it can
with local/national police and background checks and local/national
registries, but unfortunately these are not 100% accurate, as not all
sex offenders are registered as required by their conviction. However,
while conducting this review, we did identify gaps in our policies, as
well as discrepancies between Army and DOD policy.
To resolve these gaps and discrepancies, the Army has convened a
policy review group under the direction of the Army G-1 and in
partnership with the FBI and DOJ. The group has identified necessary
policy and procedure changes and an opportunity to better partner with
other governmental agencies. The review group will submit its findings,
recommendations, and timeline to the senior leadership of the Army
later this summer. [See page 15.]
Dr. Foubert. The question regarded whether there are traits that
distinguish men who are more likely to commit sexual assault and/or
rape. There are indeed many such traits. I caution that an individual
could have all such traits and still not have committed rape and still
not commit rape in the future. However, research has identified many
traits and characteristics in men that are associated with a higher
risk for committing rape and other forms of sexual assault. The
enclosed handout identifies these characteristics with citations
attached to their source in the research.
As the author of the only sexual assault prevention program shown
by research to lead to a decline in sexual assault behavior by college-
aged men, I hope that I can maintain an ongoing relationship with your
committee and the branches of the military as we work together to
eradicate rape from our midst. Please call on me anytime I can be of
assistance. [See page 36.]
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