{"id":26312,"date":"2021-09-20T19:43:35","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T19:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/09\/20\/watchdog-dod-getting-better-at-tracking-military-justice-demographics-but-works-remains\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:18:28","slug":"watchdog-dod-getting-better-at-tracking-military-justice-demographics-but-works-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/newsletters\/daily-news-roundup\/2021\/09\/20\/watchdog-dod-getting-better-at-tracking-military-justice-demographics-but-works-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog: DoD getting better at tracking military justice demographics, but work remains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Defense Department and military services have made progress in tracking demographic data regarding military justice cases, but some work remains to be done, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office update<\/a> issued late last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The watchdog released a report<\/a> in May 2019 looking at racial, gender and ethnic disparities in the military justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That report found that the services were not consistently collecting information along those demographic lines, which limited their ability to identify any disparities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2019 analysis also found that Black, Hispanic and male servicemembers were more likely than white or female service members to be investigated for crimes and were also more likely to be tried in general and special courts-martial when controlling for rank and education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that analysis also found that race and gender were not \u201cstatistically significant factors\u201d when it came to convictions, and that minority servicemembers were as or less likely to receive a more severe punishment than their white counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\t