In an article in The Washington Post entitled Sexual Assault in the military continues to rise despite efforts to Reverse, the author focuses on the issue of sexual assault in the Army of the United States. One of the critical conclusions that the author draws is that the situation is out of control. Compared to 2020, the number of cases of sexual assault in 2021 increased by 13% (Horton, 2022). The article quotes many experts, including from the Pentagon, regarding the situation with sexual assault. One of the main reasons, experts call, is the behavior of commanders, which allows such cases to remain unsolved (Horton, 2022). As a result, the number of cases of sexual assault increases, and trust in commanders decreases.
As an example of a real-life situation, I will consider a case that happened to a friend of mine at the firm where he works. This situation is related to the one described in the article of The Washington Post in that it resulted in distrust of the governing figures and its consequences. My friend’s boss had a friendly relationship with one of his colleagues. One day, other colleagues and a friend of mine, in particular, noticed that a friend of the boss was given a much better working environment than the rest of the employees. Moreover, specific patterns of financial fraud have been identified. When suspicions fell on the boss’ buddy, he refused to investigate the case and identify the cause. As a result, the trust of the rest of the company’s employees in the boss has significantly decreased.
My field of study is criminal justice. In both cases, in the article in The Washington Post and my real-life event, knowledge from the criminal justice field will help prevent various schemes of concealing the crime. Thorough investigation and application of fair punishment will reduce the number of cases of sexual assault in the US military (Waldron et al., 2017). Moreover, applying criminal justice will restore confidence in the governing bodies and commanders.
Two questions that I could pursue as part of my research:
- What punishment should be applied to reduce the amount of sexual assault cases?
- What methods of criminal justice should be applied to investigate such cases properly?
Single-guiding question:
- What are the peculiarities of applying criminal justice in the US military field?
References
Horton, A. (2022, September). Sexual assault in military continues to rise despite efforts to reverse. The Washington Post.
Waldron, R. J., Quarles, C. L., McElreath, D. H., Waldron, M. E., & Milstein, D. E. (2017). The criminal justice system: An introduction, (5th ed.). CRC Press.