The issue of sexual assault within the Army has jumped into the limelight in recent years and has plagued our formations because of the lack of effective training approach, hostile work environment and heavy workload, and the fear of reporting sexual misconduct throughout the Army.
The Army is focusing its attention to much on the mission, and not enough on the soldiers to ensure that they have the necessary tools to be comfortable to report to the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program (SHARP). SHARP in the Army is under-reported do to reprisal, fear, and being uneducated about the different avenues approaches to achieve confidential reporting process, who to talk to and where to go. In accordance with (IAW) AR 600- 20 CHAPTER 7-8 soldiers can report restricted or unrestricted; who they report to may determine the approach they can take because of the limitations in the reporting process. SHARP advertisement in the Army is not effective do to units not updating boards, personnel information, and supplying effective location information to where all the offices are found on post. SHARP is a program the Army has come up with but when it gets to the lower level its not well put together.
SHARP is supposed to thrive and be successful but when unit level leaders do not support (what can be a great program) soldiers in a SHARP situation creates a hostile environment. The lack of trust soldiers have for their leaderships, the fear of reprisal from their counterparts, and fear of the offender also creates other issues. Leaders need to train up more often, create a less demanding workload during a stressful time and build trust between the higher ups and lower rankings. To help reach these goals, the biggest task the Army has is training the leaders to be more relatable and approachable to soldiers. Soldiers need create an environment that builds trust by identifying and eliminating warning signs of sexual assault, such as innuendos, harassment and personal assaults. In return this promotes better cohesion, boost morale and establishes trust especially between leader and soldier.
According to former Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno has laid out five requirements that focus on sexual assault. The first is protecting of victims, providing care to them and protecting their privacy. The second is investigating sexual assaults in a professional manner and taking appropriate action based on the results of such inquiries. The third imperative is creating an appropriate, positive command climate where trust and respect are the cornerstones. For Soldiers to trust that appropriate actions will be taken by their chain of command, an “attitude of respect” must pervade among the ranks. Fourth requirement is that the Army must hold everyone accountable, units, commanders and leaders when incidents occur. Lastly, the chain of command must be engaged, responsible for everything in its unit and accountable for what goes on inside of that unit.
