Conclusion of the special issue on sexual harassment and sexual assault in the US military: What have we learned, and where do we go from here?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article concludes the special issue dedicated to examining the problems of sexual harassment (SH) and sexual assault (SA) in the U.S. military. After reviewing the reasons for devoting a special issue to this topic, we briefly describe the contributions of each article in this special issue. Next, we discuss 3 thematic domains that emerged across these articles with respect to preventing and responding to sexual violence in the military: the benefits of emphasizing the links between different forms of sexual violence within a “continuum of harm” framework; the necessity of considering the role of contextual as well as individual difference factors; and the need for systematic and rigorous empirical research to determine the effects of policy and training initiatives on relevant outcomes. Suggestions for future work on sexual violence prevention and response are provided. We conclude by noting that the military has the opportunity to lead in preventing sexual violence, benefitting not only service members but society as a whole.