U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The Air Force’s top Sexual Assault Prevention and Response officer said the service is placing a greater focus on preventing sexual assault and power-based interpersonal violence Jan. 9.
Maj. Gen James Johnson, director of the Air Force’s SAPR Office, spoke during the military service academy’s first Prevention Summit, hosted by the Air Force Academy in Polaris Hall and attended by representatives from the Air Force, Military, Navy, Coast Guard Academy and Merchant Marine academies.
The three-day summit featured a variety of experts discussing sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking, with an emphasis on intervention and response.
“Very often, in that situation, prevention took a back seat because our victims that come forward are first and foremost our concern, and should be,” Maj. Gen. Johnson said.
Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson, superintendent of the Air Force Academy, said power-based interpersonal violence, violence of assertions of power, control or intimidation to harm another, is a concern across higher education.
“This is a different lens than what we started [the SAPR Program] with,” she said. “Understandably, we started with ‘response,” that is, how do we keep our promise to the parents who send their children to our universities and who send their sons and daughters to serve, that we will take care of them?”
Experts need to do more than crunch numbers to accurately account for the complexities of power-based interpersonal violence, Lt. Gen. Johnson said.
Maj. Gen. Johnson said the Air Force’s goal is to make the right investments in staunching power-based violence.
“This forum is the beginning of our efforts to collectively move in that direction, to invest more heavily in [violence] prevention,” she said.
Event speaker and Green Dot Program author Dorothy Edwards said the military emphasis was on sexual assault response but the military is now focusing on prevention strategies.
Event speaker Nathan Galbreath, senior executive adviser for the DOD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said studies show that most people are sexually active by age 18.
“Most of their sexual education comes from social media,” he said.
Galbreath said college-age adults need better education in the area of what constitutes coercive sexual behavior.
“What needs to happen is a better overarching approach to [sexual assault and power-based violence] prevention,” he said.
Lt. Gen Johnson said this approach starts at the top of the military’s chain of command.
“Once leaders own up to the issue, it will be much easier to inspire the front lines, to inspire an institutional awareness of the problem so that we can leverage the vast majority at the institution who want to be a part of the solution, to be influencers of good,” she said.