Challenges to evaluating US military policy on sexual assault and sexual harassment

Abstract

ABSTRACTUS military policy has come under fire by critics who charge that it does not do enough to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault, to support and protect victims, and to hold perpetrators accountable. This article first outlines the challenges of collecting, understanding, and analyzing relevant military policies, even for scholars with access to the military community and experience studying it. Policies can vary across and within organizations, be documented in a wide variety of formats, and evolve (or devolve) over time. Next the authors review the types of data sources that could be used to try to determine whether selected policies are effective and where they may be having unintended consequences. To illustrate challenges and opportunities related to evaluating these policies, the authors narrow the discussion to focus on three types of sexual assault policies that have received recent scrutiny: policies aimed at sexual assault prevention, reporting, and offender accountability. The article concludes by mapping out a body of future research that would assist decision makers in Congress and the Department of Defense in more fully drawing upon the academic community to conduct research that can inform policy.