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Sexual Assault Training in the Military: Evaluating Efforts to End the “Invisible War”

  • Original Article
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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

Sexual assault is an insidious problem in the United States military. In 2005 the Department of Defense (DoD) created the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, which centralizes responsibility for sexual assault training. However, this training initiative has undergone little evaluation by outside researchers. Addressing this need, we analyzed responses from over 24,000 active duty personnel who completed the 2010 DoD Workplace and Gender Relations Survey. We assessed whether sexual assault training exposure (None, Minimal, Partial, or Comprehensive) predicted accurate knowledge of sexual assault resources and protocols. Using a social-ecological framework, we investigated whether institutional and individual factors influenced Service members’ training exposure and judgment of training effectiveness. According to our results, exposure to comprehensive training predicted lower sexual assault incidence and superior knowledge. However, comprehensive training differed as a function of military branch, rank, gender, and sexual assault history. Judgments of training effectiveness also varied across these dimensions. Our results highlight the importance of considering context, gender, and victimization history when evaluating institutional efforts to end sexual violence. The DoD’s 2010 annual report on military sexual assault concluded that “most Active Duty members receive effective training on sexual assault” (p. 104). Our results cast doubt on that assertion.

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Notes

  1. Feminist theorists have long articulated the differences between sex and gender. Gender, as a concept, allows us to differentiate biological/physiological differences between women and men (i.e., sex) from the social roles and characteristics that are assigned to women and men (Delphy 1993; Oakley 1972/1985; Scott 1988). While female/male typically designates “sex,” we conceptualize this variable as “gender” in our analyses. Gender, and the social meanings and experiences associated with it, is a more useful category of analysis when examining social structures and phenomena (Scott 1988).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Abigail J. Stewart for her feedback on an earlier draft of this article. The Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) conducted the 2010 survey analyzed here, as part of the quadrennial cycle of human relations surveys outlined in Title 10 U. S. Code Section 481.

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  1. Departments of Psychology and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1043, USA

    Kathryn J. Holland, Verónica Caridad Rabelo & Lilia M. Cortina

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  1. Kathryn J. Holland
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  2. Verónica Caridad Rabelo
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  3. Lilia M. Cortina
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Holland, K.J., Rabelo, V.C. & Cortina, L.M. Sexual Assault Training in the Military: Evaluating Efforts to End the “Invisible War”. Am J Community Psychol 54, 289–303 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-014-9672-0

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