Army Sexual Harassment/Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Program (SHARP) Tiger Team: A Model to Inform Prevention

Abstract

Sexual harassment (SH) and sexual assault (SA) are significant problems in the U.S. military that merit focused attention and targeted preventive efforts. A number of factors and attitudes associated with current military culture may foster and perpetuate the occurrence of SH/SA. The recognition of these factors and attitudes points towards a needed overhaul of military cultural attitudes and behaviors associated with acts of SH/SA. To begin to achieve the desired end-state, military leadership requires detailed information about aspects of the prevailing culture that facilitate SH/SA. The Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Tiger Team (STT) is program developed at a large Army installation in a Corps-wide effort to garner soldiers’ perspectives to inform prevention and provide actionable data to military leadership. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) describe the STT program and 2) disseminate recommendations derived from aggregated process improvement data to inform best practices and preventive activities. We identify several key takeaways relevant to preventive efforts including, modification of physical environment, intervention by charge of quarters (QCs), bystander intervention, inappropriate use of electronic media, perceptions of behavior, boundaries, leadership/unit climate, variation across units, complacency, training preferences/suggestions, and leadership support.

Keywords:

• Sexual assault
• sexual harassment
• military
• soldiers
• Army
• prevention
• military leadership
• military culture
• SHARP
• tiger team