White House changing rules for prosecuting military sexual assault

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden was expected to sign on Friday an executive order revamping the way sexual assault and other crimes are handled in the military, the White House said.

The order implements legislative changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice wrapped into the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization

Act. Under the changes, prosecution of sexual and related crimes will be handled by special victims units in the services, outside the military chain of command.

“This is a turning point for survivors of genderbased violence in the military, and represents the most significant transformation of the military justice system since the UCMJ was established in 1950,” a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.

Covered offenses include sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, murder, manslaughter and kidnapping, among other crimes. long advocated by some lawmakers. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., spearheaded efforts to alter the Uniform Code of Military Justice to make it fairer for victims of sexual assault, arguing that colonels, captains, generals and admirals had too much influence on the process.

Sexual assault continues to plague the military. A report released in April indicated that the number of servicemembers who reported sexual assault in fiscal 2022 increased slightly from fiscal 2021. According to the report, 7,378 servicemembers said they experienced sexual assault last year compared with 7,260 the previous year — a 1.6 percent increase.

However, Pentagon officials stressed at the time that the number of reported incidents doesn’t paint a full picture of the problem because many crimes go unreported. Last year’s scientific survey on sexual assault prevalence, which is conducted every two years, estimated that almost 36,000 active-duty personnel, both women and men, were sexually assaulted.