What should be done to stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in the military?

I don't think it is necessarily getting worse but we are now identifying the issues that have been swept under the rug. It is absurd to me that a commander would let this happen. But be cautious of what you read and hear. Everyone is entitled to have a review of the case. The Marine was not referencing an assault.

Officials with II Marine Expeditionary Force provided few details about the case, saying only that the video "refers to an allegation of misconduct regarding the wrongful appropriation and distribution of personal information."

From what I understand the assailant received photos that were sexual in nature and shared them. I have read various reports on how he come into obtaining them. He is guilty of it and he admitted that. He should be punished for his actions.

We need a systematic approach on how we stop these incidents from happening. If he hacked her phone or if another Marine gave them to him then they should be held accountable. It is a cultural issue that we have to address. Just by punishing one person at a time we will not win this. It wasn't long ago when the Marines were caught with FB groups sharing pictures and information about females. The culture is still around and she was the latest victim. We need to teach the force what is acceptable to start correcting the problem.

I can't say that it's getting worse, just more notice. Imagine a the sexual assaults that went unreported 30 years ago. I don't think I could count that high. Victims are now starting to get empowered to report these heinous acts more frequently. As well they should.

Working with JAG, EO, and SHARP staff there may be a change in perception that appears to be more assaults. It's quite possible that what we're seeing is an uptick in reporting due to trust in the program.

Essentially what I'm saying is that the numbers never really changed, the assaults were always happening, we just have a better eye on it now due to a change in trust.

I have seen these kinds of cases have Soldiers administratively separated and processed for courts-martial. People are getting punished and removed from the armed forces over these events, but there is a question of transparency. Are units posting justice reports from JAG in visible areas? Are Soldiers aware of these justice reports? There is a perception that the higher the rank the more it's likely to get swept under the rug, so it's important for younger Soldiers to see these reports so they know there are consequences.

When I worked with a unit out of the 101st the command team posted justice reports to their social media page for full transparency in addition to sending them to down trace units. Initially these reports were only article 15's but then they began posting reprimands and court-martial cases once completed. These reports would announce the rank of the Soldier involved but not their name, what they were in violation of, and what action was taken against them. I noticed that especially the lower enlisted and junior officers would read them regularly in areas where they were posted, especially when you start seeing E7 - E9 and O3 - O6 start getting punished.

That said the increased visibility and increased trust in reporting shouldn't meant we're done exploring solutions. I can tell you though that more PowerPoint slides isn't going to help any. They're boring and people don't retain a lot of information in them. Presentation is important, if the speaker is just regurgitating the information on the slides then it's going to be ignored or forgotten quickly.