Overcoming Barriers to Justice: Examining Victim Hierarchies and Stereotypes in Military Sexual Assault Cases

• In Event: Facilitators and Barriers to Help-Seeking In Response to Victimization

Abstract

Despite 20 years of prevention efforts and policy development, the U.S. military has pervasive challenges related to sexual assault. The Department of Defense (2021) has documented a rise in estimated sexual assaults and a decline in reporting across all military branches. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with 50 servicewomen and 11 military prosecutors, I explore barriers to reporting and limitations in the institutional response to sexual violence. Using a grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) approach, I show that despite having multiple reporting streams, victims described a context where they feared those in positions of power would not find them credible. When deciding to report or not, servicewomen created a hierarchy of victimization based on how they believed their experiences would be interpreted by other servicemembers, often downplaying sexual assault and prioritizing rape. Similarly, military prosecutors created a hierarchy of victims, often based on sexual assault stereotypes, when determining case
strategies and told gendered stories about victims and those accused of sexual violence at court-martial. Overall, victim hierarchies and constructions of “good” or “credible” victims shaped decisions to report, as well as prosecutors’ approaches to cases. Taken together, sexual assault myths serve as a constraint on institutional responses to sexual violence.

Author

• Stephanie Bonnes, University of New Haven