Black troops punished more than whites, study finds
Disparities are present across branches of service
USA TODAY WASHINGTON Black troops are far more likely than their white comrades to face court-martial or other forms of military punishment, according to a study released Wednesday.
Black service members were as much as two times more likely than white troops to face discipline in an average year, according to an analysis by Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy organization for victims of sexual assault and military justice. The group combed through Pentagon data from 2006 to 2015 for its report.
USA TODAY received an advance copy of the study.
“Over the past decade, racial disparities have persisted in the military justice system without indications of improvement,” the report states. “These disparities are particularly striking for black service members, who face military justice or disciplinary action at much higher rates than white service members in every service branch. In fact, the size of the disparity between white and black service members’ military justices involvement has remained consistent over the years, and, in the case of the Air Force and Marine Corps, has increased.”
A spokesman for the Pentagon said officials will review the report.
“It is longstanding Department of Defense policy that service members must be afforded the opportunity to serve in an environment free from unlawful racial discrimination,” said Johnny Michael, a Pentagon spokesman.
The military services provided differing sets of data in response to the request from Protect Our Defenders, making comparisons among the services difficult. For example, the Air Force provided proceedings from court-martial and nonjudicial punishment from 2006 to 2015, while the Marine Corps supplied guilty findings for court-martial and nonjudicial punishment for the same period. The researchers found the Marine Corps had some of the most significant issues with race, particularly in instances where the harshest penalties were possible. In an average year, black Marines were 2.61 times more likely than whites to receive a guilty finding at a general court-martial, the military judicial proceeding for more serious offenses.
The study also found that blacks were 71 percent more likely than whites in the Air Force to face court-martial or nonjudicial punishment — discipline meted out for less serious offenses.
Findings for the Army and Navy show disparities, as well. Black soldiers were 61percent more likely to face court-martial than whites in the Army; and black sailors were 40 percent more likely than whites in the Navy to be court-martialed.
“From the findings of the study, race appears like it plays a big role, which is disheartening,” Don Christensen, president of the group and a former top prosecutor for the Air Force, said in an interview. Christensen speculated that the lack of diversity in the military may play a role in unequal justice for black troops. In 2016, about 78 percent of military officers were white, and 8 percent were black.
“If you look at the leadership of military it skews very dramatically white and male and you would imagine that the closer relationships will be with white male subordinates,” Christensen said. “Hence, they probably get the benefit of the doubt that the African-American males don’t.”
The study shows that the military isn’t immune from the same racial issues that affect civilian police and courts, said Michael Wishnie, clinical professor of law at Yale University. Stereotypes and implicit bias can affect who is arrested and charged and who gets a plea deal.
“So it’s a lot like everything else in society, and that’s a real problem,” he said.