In an effort to get ahead of potential sexual misconduct, the Navy has been using research and training models to learn more about \u201cgray-zone behavior,\u201d or acts that don\u2019t meet the Navy\u2019s definition of sexual harassment or sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navy officials recently spoke exclusively to Military Times about that research in a teleconference hosted by the Naval Postgraduate School<\/a> and the Department of the Navy Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office<\/a>, or DON SAPRO. Researchers and communications representatives from those elements were on the call, as was a Navy spokesperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, DON SAPRO partnered with the college, located in Monterey, California, to refine efforts to prevent sexual misconduct within its ranks before it occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research is meant to give first-line supervisors training on how to handle inappropriate behavior in the workplace and should be ready to roll out to the fleet within the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen people think about SAPR, they immediately think about response,\u201d said Dr. Jessica Gallus, senior advisor for the DON SAPRO<\/a>, in a teleconference last week with Military Times. \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely committed to providing victims with world-class care when they do experience sexual assault, but for us it\u2019s just as critical that we focus on prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gallus was also previously the deputy director of the Air Force\u2019s Resilience Office, and she managed a research initiative on sexual harassment and assault within the Army\u2019s sexual harassment\/assault response and prevention<\/a> program, or SHARP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue of sexual misconduct in the military received increased attention as new developments surfaced in the case of an Army soldier who disappeared from Fort Hood on April 22 and was later found dead. Twenty-year-old Spc. Vanessa Guillen\u2019s case revealed she may have been sexually harassed beforehand<\/a>, according to family members who claim Guillen confided in them about two separate incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guillen\u2019s family will join lawmakers on Wednesday to announce legislation making sexual harassment a criminal activity<\/a> under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Sexual assault is already a categorized crime under the UCMJ, according to the Defense Department\u2019s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office<\/a>, or DOD SAPRO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gray-zone behavior<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Gail Thomas, an associate professor at the NPS Graduate School of Defense Management, heads up the initiative and employs \u201csituational judgement tests,\u201d or SJTs, that use real-world scenarios of gray-zone behavior. One scenario features a man complimenting a woman\u2019s new haircut then follows up the comment with a wink. Depending on other factors, this act alone likely wouldn\u2019t fall under the Navy\u2019s definition of sexual harassment, but it\u2019s also not conducive to a healthy work environment either, Thomas said. These tests are used in the corporate world and other places to assess individual ability to navigate potentially sensitive scenarios in a work environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas, whose background is in inter-organizational collaboration and strategic communication, drew on her 30 years of experience working with the Navy, \u201cso I\u2019m familiar with these stories,\u201d she said during the teleconference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas and her team took to \u201cthe field\u201d to asked junior officers and sailors about their experiences with inappropriate behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey had no lack of stories to tell,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019, The Navy was third in the number of reported sexual assault cases, below the Army and Marine Corps, according to the Defense Department\u2019s SAPR office<\/a>. During the 2019 fiscal year, there were some 6,236 reports of sexual assault in the Armed Forces, a 3 percent increase from the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Testing the test<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n To measure the potential impact of the SJTs, Thomas decided to test the test, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnecdotally, I heard a lot of stories of \u2018where did you get these incidents? The same thing happened to me,\u2019\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThey came from people like them. That\u2019s why, I think, they resonate with people. I got several comments [similar to] \u2018this doesn\u2019t look like any other training I\u2019ve ever seen before.\u2019 So, that\u2019s what made me feel like maybe we\u2019ve hit on something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas said she\u2019s looking to help the Navy create better, more healthy work environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would argue that the Navy, more than ever now, needs to be able to have that kind of condition at work,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe need to be able to recruit people who want to come to this kind of place. We need to keep people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to bolstering the Navy\u2019s recruiting and retention efforts, the training will allow leadership and the rank and file the tools they need to succeed, Gallus said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s about empowering sailors and Marines to enact culture change,\u201d Gallus said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s giving them the tools where they can create the climate where these things don\u2019t happen. We know that climate is the biggest driver of sexual harassment and that sexual harassment is a risk factor for sexual assault. If we can start at the earliest signs of challenging behavior, I think we have a much better ability to prevent some of those escalations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marine nude photo scandal<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n In March 2017, news broke about an online group of mostly Marines who were sharing nude photos of fellow service members, sometimes with personally identifiable information. The Marine Corps took swift action, ordering an end to the sharing and issuing <\/b>a disciplinary page 11 for all Marines to sign, acknowledging they understood the order being given. Page 11 refers to the section of a Marine\u2019s service record reserved for administrative comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMarines are geared toward action, and our response to improving our culture is no different,” said Marine Corps spokesperson Capt. Casey Littesy, in an email to Military Times on Monday. “While we do not have all the answers, we do know the end state: continue to take steps that foster a culture of dignity, respect, and trust for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Marine Corps has since worked to implement several institutional changes to improve its culture and the Marine Corps court-martialed seven Marines involved<\/a> a year after the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vanessa Guillen<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n The military has a lot of work to do if it is to stamp out instances of sexual misconduct and enact a culture change, as an April Defense Department study<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Guillen news has sparked national outrage and prompted the Army to review its SHARP program. Created in 2009, the SHARP program is required annually at the unit level and includes videos and other interactive training tools, as well as situational scenarios on sexual harassment and sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fixing its own house<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many reasons why the victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault don\u2019t report incidents. In many cases, they fear retaliation from their peers and their chain of command. In 2015, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter directed the DoD to address the issue and Congress followed suit in 2016 in its Defense Authorization Act. What resulted was the Retaliation Prevention and Response Strategy: Regarding Sexual Assault and Harassment Reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur most recent data show a significant percentage of military victims of sexual assault indicate they perceive some kind of retaliation after reporting the crime to authorities,\u201d Carter wrote. \u201cThe Department will not tolerate divisive behavior at odds with the military\u2019s core values.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many are critical of the military\u2019s track record in responding to cases of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The family of Guillen has criticized the Army, calling for the creation of a third-party agency<\/a> for the victims of military sexual harassment to use as a go-around to report their claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas and Gallus wouldn\u2019t speak directly to the Guillen murder or about the claims she was sexually harassed beforehand, but Thomas said the work she\u2019s doing will have an impact and potentially create a professional atmosphere where gray-zone behavior won\u2019t occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s because people I don\u2019t think are educated to take care of those things that you have to go to the third party,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWhat I\u2019m hoping to do is \u2014 why do we have to go to a third party?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Military justice reform<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n For some, the military isn\u2019t doing enough to punish those who commit sexual harassment or sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe optimist in me tells me we\u2019re at the crossroads because of the Vanessa Guillen situation and the \u2018I am Vanessa Guillen\u2019 hashtag that I think there\u2019s pressure now in the military to finally do something, and pressure on Congress to take seriously reform in its justice system,\u201d said Don Christensen, president of the nonprofit Protect Our Defenders<\/a>, in an interview with Military Times last week. \u201cBut we know that reports \u2014 we don\u2019t know what they are this year, but they\u2019ve been going up every year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Training is part of the solution, but it\u2019s not enough, said Christensen, a retired colonel who served as chief prosecutor for the Air Force from 2010-2014 and spent his entire 23-year military career as either a trial counsel, defense counsel or military judge. His group provides legal counsel to victims of sexual assault and lobbies for reform of the military justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo one thinks murder\u2019s OK, but it still happens,\u201d Christensen said. \u201cYou can train people not to rape or commit sexual assault or sexual harassment. It\u2019s still going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The military will never completely be free of sexual misconduct, but holding people accountable is the only real way to get these instances down to \u201cacceptable levels,\u201d Christensen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey [the military] seem to accept that they\u2019re terrible at it and they put all their eggs in the training basket,\u201d Christensen said. \u201cWell, think how bad murder would be if people knew there were no consequences to it and that\u2019s really what\u2019s happening in the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christensen claimed a huge percentage of sex offenders are never held accountable in the military and that it has to do a better job investigating claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have to do a better job in prosecutions, they have to reform the system to take commanders out of the role they\u2019re ill-equipped to have \u2014 and that is making prosecution decisions,\u201d Christensen said. \u201cProsecuting sexual assault and rape cases is extremely difficult. It takes years to be good at it. There is not a commander in any service at any level that is qualified to make prosecution decisions. Clear and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a letter directed at House and Senate legislators negotiating the final 2021 National Defense Authorization Act<\/a>, other lawmakers called for, among other things, the creation of a pilot program to test an independent prosecutor for special victim offenses at the Military Service Academies, where cases of sexual misconduct were up some 30 percent from the previous year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Navy made it clear that its NPS gray-zone research is only looking to define those behaviors that aren\u2019t currently categorized, \u201cbut are nonetheless detrimental to morale and productivity,\u201d said Navy spokesperson Lt. Brittany Stephens in an email to Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would like to emphasize that these negative behaviors are counter to our core values of honor, courage, and commitment,\u201d Stephens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Military sexual trauma and veterans<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n For many service members who have experienced sexual assault in the military, finding the resources to live healthy and productive lives can be difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n