What can two Army veterans tell their daughter about serving? What do we tell children about the chances of sex assault?

By Donna McAleer

Best Defense guest columnist

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) and Claire McCaskill (MO)
have become the faces and voices of outrage and action over the crisis of
sexual assault in the military. The reason why two civilian female senators who
never wore a uniform have done so is because, as members of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, they had to. Why? Because on this crime issue, the military's senior command has failed.

That is one of the most difficult sentences I have ever
written. As a West Point graduate and former Army Military Police Officer, as
much as I would like to deny it, as bitter as that sentence is, it is the
truth. 

Sexual assaults are notoriously underreported crimes,
although in fairness, not just within the military. With respect to the
services, in 2010, the DOD estimated that more than 19,000 assaults
occurred. In 2012, the estimate jumped 34 percent to 26,000, of which
approximately 12,000 women and 14,000 men were assaulted. That amounts to 70
assaults per day. DOD derived these estimates from its bi-annual Workplace and Gender
Relations Survey of Active Duty Members (WGRA).

Such data make it difficult to properly measure progress addressing
the problem because of insufficient prior data. It is hoped these numbers
indicate more confidence in a reporting procedure and not an increase in
assaults. Regardless, the numbers are too high.

Nearly 10 years of data as reported by DOD Sexual Assault Prevention
and Response Office, particularly the last four, raise an
alarming question: Is the chain of command and UCMJ working properly?

Representatives Loretta Sanchez (CA) and Louise Slaughter
(NY) began addressing sexual assaults in the military more than 17 years ago on
the House Armed Services Committee. Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), founded in 2007, has worked
tirelessly with legislators on both sides of the aisle and victims to help
victims of military sexual assault present their accusations without prejudice.
Senators Kelly Ayotte (NH), Jon Tester (MT), Barbara Boxer (CA), and Patty
Murray (WA), and Representatives Mike Turner (OH), Bill Braley (IA), Niki
Tsongas (MA), and Chellie Pingree (ME) are among others continuing reform
efforts introducing bipartisan and bi-cameral legislation to support victims
and prosecute perpetrators.

Coalition building, bipartisan legislation, veterans-led
initiatives, a force stretched thin by 12 years of war, a database of more than
230,000 women serving in various combat theaters, documentary films such as The Invisible War and Miss
Representation, lawsuits, a technology-driven global economy that provides
instant information, and a concomitant media barrage that increased awareness
have brought this crisis front and center to the nation.

Here's the good: Senior service commanders have put in
place regulations that better protect victims and attempt to reduce sexual
assault crimes in the military. These
include:

Implementation of victim support programs




Reform of the UCMJ rape provisions




Strengthening of sexual assault investigation and prosecution
functions




Enhanced reporting and oversight at the departmental and
congressional levels

In addition, the DOD-wide SAPR Strategic Plan focuses on
prevention and reporting of sex crimes through training. The act included provisions for
"guaranteed confidentiality between victims and victims' advocates, access
to legal assistance of survivors, document retention, and expedited transfers
from military installations if requested by victims." These parameters,
authorized by Congress in 2011, enable DOD to establish increased parity with
existing civilian jurisdictions. 

Last year, Secretary
of Defense Leon Panetta required a higher level of
commander (colonel and above) to decide how sex assault cases are handled. And
with additional provisions in the 2013 NDAA, Special Victim Units within each
military branch for the investigation and prosecution of such offenses were
established. On May 15, 2013, President Obama signed an order making a number
of changes to the Uniform Code of
Military Justice, or UCMJ, "that included downgrading the maximum sentence
for rape in the military from a capital crime to life in prison."

Here's the bad: Absent is a focus on the perpetrator,
institutional accountability, and prosecution of violent sex crimes. 

DOD has not developed and implemented a policy that
creates a tangible, visible deterrent to perpetrators through consistent
prosecutions or other severely negative consequences to one's military careers.
I am confident the military can do this. Precedents exist. For example, a
deterrence model was used by the services to effectively reduce drunk driving
and illegal drug use. 

Despite existing data, many in the military have advocated
keeping the disposition of sexual assault cases within the chain of command,
claiming it erodes command authority. How?

Under the Military
Justice Improvement Act,
the legislation proposed by Senator Gillibrand, discretion on whether to
prosecute sexual assaults and other crimes punishable by more than a year in
prison would be given to military prosecutors (law professionals) instead of
commanding officers whose background, and more importantly, responsibilities,
necessarily give them little time to devote to such serious issues as sexual
assaults, which degrade unit morale and cohesion.

The military has to recognize that solely focusing on the
command integrity issue and expecting the present structure to result in
adequate enforcement and prevention is delusional. 

The most telling examples happened earlier this year when
two Air Force generals overturned the court-martial convictions
of two officers -- one without comment! What message does that tell enlisted
personnel or junior officers when in a situation where a superior is making
untoward sexual advances? I'll tell you: It turns the concept of "Don't
Ask, Don't Tell" on its head.

No American institution is as historically respected,
disciplined, honor-bound, and committed to assessments based on individual
competences and character as is our military. While many I know and served with
at all ranks are committed to live and uphold the core values of loyalty,
respect, selfless service, and personal courage, others in leadership positions
have failed to do so. Tradition and history will no longer suffice.

I have a daughter. Both my husband and I proudly served in
the Army, and we have told our daughter of our experiences. I want my daughter
(and all children) to consider serving in the military. But how can I ask her
to enter the military knowing that her chances of being sexually assaulted are one in
three, compared to one in six in the civilian world?
Women in the military are more likely to be assaulted by another servicemember
than killed in combat.

Sexual assault is a crime. It undermines cohesion, it
degrades readiness, it affects recruiting, and it goes against the basic
American values that the military defends. I recognize it will always exist,
but our military has to do better.

Donna McAleer  is a West Point
graduate, army veteran, award-winning author, speaker, and member of
the Defense Advisory Council on Women in the Military (DACOWITS).