The Need to Implement New Ideas into The Sharp Program

The Army Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program or SHARP was established in 2006. Its main purpose is to prevent any sort of inappropriate behavior associated with sexual intentions while at the same time providing soldiers with the information necessary to safely report these violations. According to the Department of Defense's annual report on sexual assault, 20,500 service members across the military branches were sexually assaulted in the year of 2018. So why do these cases still occur in our Army regardless of all the training that is being conducted? Sexual harassment doesn’t only occur in the military, it happens all throughout our nation. It’s inevitable to stop it completely because it is humanly impossible to have a perfect organization where we all respect one another behind closed doors.

The root of sexual harassment stems from repeated offenders having a strong sense of entitlement and use their rank to commit acts of sexual assault. Unfortunately, a private reporting to their first duty could easily be a victim. An example would be the platoon sergeant could hint to the private that they could receive a waiver to a specialist if he or she were to spend the night at the platoon sergeants home. And if he or she refuses then the platoon sergeant would counsel that service member for any reason that they see fit. I feel like the current approach to training to reduce the risk of sexual harassment in today’s Army is effective but all things considered, it’s up to the victim to report the perpetrator.

According to the Washington Post, in 2015 Air Force Colonel Ronald Jobo was accused of sexually harassing and assaulting his subordinates. He repeatedly told her that he wanted to have sex with her, tacked her movements and sent her recordings of him masturbating in the shower, documents show. Air Force investigators compiled extensive evidence that the colonel had committed abusive sexual contact against the woman. But later in March 2016, Lieutenant General John Thompson decides against charging Jobo with abusive sexual contact, or any crime at all. The only punishment that awaited Jobo was forced retirement and the demotion of one rank. Sadly this happens greatly more than we realize across all the military branches.

It is not possible to completely eradicate sexual violence in the military because we as humans are naturally flawed. We are not perfect therefore the only way to approach this situation is by adapting new ideas on how to reduce these crimes. I recommend that the service member filing the complaint be immediately moved from their unit to a temporary unit within the installation as a form of protection from reprisal. IAW AR 600-20 section 5-12, the Military Whistleblower Protection Act already states that soldiers are protected from reprisal but what if the complaint directly involves the service members company, 1st sergeant? Sooner or later he or she is going to get word of the report and immediately make the victims' life miserable.

In conclusion, it is unfortunate that throughout the years the cases of sexual harassment and assault are actually rising instead of diminishing. We can’t give up on the fight to stopping these crimes from happening. By implementing new ideas into the SHARP program, we can more likely achieve a much smaller report in sexual harassment and assaults.