One in five soldiers see sexual harassment, hardly any report it – By Todd South (Military Times) / April 26, 2024
A Pentagon report on how the Army deals with harassment found that surveys omitted hazing and bullying questions, commanders failed to compare results in order to spot trends and only a handful of soldiers who experienced or witnessed sexual harassment filed complaints.
The 46-page Department of Defense Inspector General’s report reviewed data from January 2021 to January 2023 for eight brigades at two locations.
Army officials agreed with inspector general recommendations, which include analyzing year-by-year defense organizational climate surveys and command climate assessments for trends, retaining records for at least five years and addressing the wide gap between soldiers who said they’d experienced or seen sexual harassment and the number of complaints reported.
Out of 27,223 responses, 4,674 respondents, or nearly one in five, said they had witnessed or experienced sexual harassment.
