The number of Air Force sexual assault victims who declined to participate in the military justice process doubled last year.
According to Air Force statistics in the Defense Department-wide Fiscal 2014 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military, which was released May 1, 24 sexual assault victims opted out of the military justice process in fiscal 2012, and 23 declined in fiscal 2013. But that number shot up to 47 in fiscal 2014.
The number of Air Force victims who were eligible to participate in the military justice process last year — meaning their cases closed in 2014 and the military had jurisdiction over them — also increased, but not enough to completely account for the growth in victims declining to participate. The percentage of victims declining to participate was 6.7 percent in 2012, dropped to 5.6 percent in 2013, and spiked to 10.7 percent last year.
Sexual assault victims in the military have several options when they report what has happened to them. They can file a restricted report, where they choose to remain anonymous and to not launch an investigation at that time, but get access to medical and mental health care. Or they can file an unrestricted report, which launches an investigation and makes it possible to hold an offender accountable.
But after beginning the unrestricted process, victims can later decide to drop out of the military justice process. They may have several reasons for doing so. Some may have grown tired of pursuing the case after it dragged on. Some may have feared or experienced retaliation. Some may have found closure in other ways.
Maj. Gen. Gina Grosso, director of the Air Force's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said in a May 5 interview that she is not sure why more victims opted out.
"It's hard to know if that's good or bad," Grosso said. "Victims have choice all along the way, and we want to be respectful of that choice. I don't think it's a measure of success or failure."
Grosso said she doesn't think that the increasing number shows victims' trust in the system is declining.
But retired Col. Don Christensen, a former Air Force chief prosecutor, thinks the swelling numbers of victims opting out is a cause for concern and shows victims may be losing confidence. Christensen, who is now president of Protect our Defenders, a group that advocates for survivors of sexual assault in the military, says the length of time it takes to resolve a sexual assault case, as well as the retaliation sexual assault victims sometimes suffer after they come forward, is discouraging some victims from continuing with their cases.
"As time drags on and they start to see how they're being treated throughout the process, it becomes a disincentive for them to keep going forward," Christensen said.
Grosso said the statistic could show that the newly established special victims' counsels, who advocate on behalf of sexual assault victims, are increasingly helping those victims remove themselves from a process they no longer wish to be a part of.
"They may be less afraid to voice that option," Grosso said. "A guess on my part is that this is something they've always wanted. They've just never had that advocate to help them extricate themselves out of the military justice process."
But Christensen doubts the creation of the special victims' counsels can explain the increase in 2014. That program was established in January 2013, yet there was a decline in both the number and rate of victims opting out that year.
Christensen also recalled that when retired Judge Advocate General Lt. Gen. Richard Harding set up the special victims' counsel program, Harding was concerned about the high rate of sexual assault victims who initially agreed to participate in their cases then changed their minds before court-martial in fiscal 2011. According to the Defense Department's 2011 sexual assault report, 65 victims declined to participate in the military justice system that year.
"[Grosso's supposition] would be inconsistent with what Gen. Harding said in the past," Christensen said. "One of the things he said the special victims' counsel was doing was getting more survivors through the process, getting them to turn restricted reports to unrestricted, and getting them to go from start to finish."
Grosso said it's hard to say whether the victims in these cases opted out because they were not prepared for the stress that comes from moving forward with a case beyond a restricted report.
"It takes great courage to come forward," Grosso said. "You cannot underestimate the difficulty it is to report this horrible trauma. We understand the brain's response to trauma. Every time you tell the story, you experience the trauma all over again. And every individual has a different threshold for what they feel is justice in their own mind."
But Grosso doesn't think the numbers suggest Air Force officials are pushing victims to go unrestricted and move forward when the victims are not comfortable.
"I've seen no evidence that we push victims one way or the other," Grosso said. "Our whole desire is to have an individual come forward and get the care they need, and give them complete control throughout the process."
Sometimes, she said, a victim may decide that it's not necessary to see the assaulter court-martialed or in prison for them to find closure and move on. She said one victim told her she was satisfied that she was heard at an Article 32 hearing — which is similar to a civilian grand jury — and that people believed her.
"For her, that was enough," Grosso said. "She wanted to just go on with her life. It felt like it wasn't in her best interest to keep going, because it was setting her back."
Grosso said that a victim choosing not to participate does not always mean the end of the prosecution. The Air Force can still continue to pursue charges against the alleged assaulter if it has enough evidence, she said. But that does not happen very often, the Air Force said.
The Air Force's numbers are at odds with broader trends in the military.
The percentage of victims declining to participate in the overall military dropped from 11 percent in 2012 to 9 percent in 2013 before ticking up slightly to 10 percent last year, according to the DoD report. And the Army's percentages dropped from 7 percent to 6 percent to 4 percent over the same time period.
The Navy's section said 16 percent of victims declined to participate last year, but did not say what the previous years' percentages were. The report also said that in the Marine Corps, the percentage dropped from 16 percent in 2011 to 9 percent last year, but did not say what it was in 2012 and 2013.
Christensen said the Air Force needs to ask the victims who decline to participate why they have chosen not to, and do more to study this issue.
And to rebuild victims' confidence in the system, Christensen said senior Air Force leadership needs to come out more strongly against sexual assault and in support of victims.
High-profile cases like those of Lt. Gen. Susan Helms and Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin — who were heavily criticized and retired after overturning officers' sexual assault convictions — have undermined victims' confidence, Christensen said.
Also demoralizing for victims, Christensen said: Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Stephen Mueller wrote in a Facebook comment on an Air Force Times story that he was "heart broken" and "bitter" about Franklin's retirement.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
