Changing the Culture: Retired Army agent encourages Academy officials to engage on sexual assault

  • Published
  • By Amber Baillie
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  A retired Army Criminal Investigative Service special agent spoke to leaders here on the need for culture change to combat sexual assault during a presentation March 19 in Fairchild Hall.

Russell Strand, chief of the behavioral sciences education and training division for the Army's Military Police School, told instructors and air officers commanding that sexual assault should always be taken seriously and personally.

"We wouldn't be talking about sexual assault if there wasn't pain from it," he said. "The pain has to be there to drive change. I appreciate everything you do at the Academy. I love your professionalism, but no matter how professional we are here, we have problems that need to be talked about."

Strand said the military has made positive changes when it comes to combatting sexual assault, but there needs to be constant awareness and education on the topic.

"Every year we bring in hundreds of thousands into the service, some bringing in bad behaviors and problems," he said. "Just because we have them swear under oath doesn't mean we automatically make them what we need them to be."

Culture change is not easy, Strand said. He said the first step is understanding sex offenders.

"There are warning signs," he said. "They're predators and hunters who come in all different forms and hide who they are."

According to Strand, every individual has three personas: a public, uninhibited and private persona.

"For some, their personas are close together and for others they're very far apart," he said. "It's in that private persona where sex offenders thrive. Unfortunately victims typically don't see it until it's too late."

Strand said 37 percent of those accused of sexual assault in the military are NCOs and officers.

"They're the very ones trained to protect those around them," he said. "It's a problem because every one of those NCOs and officers had training on sexual assault. We can't lead or train our way out of sexual assault. We have to build a need, desire and skillset for change and then apply it."

An insider threat who gains trust is far more effective at causing harm, Strand said.

"We talk about 'stranger danger,' the buddy system and how it's important to only hang out with people you trust," he said. "Most sexual assaults are committed by people who are trusted."

Never make a judgment of a sexual assault report because you have no idea what happened, Strand said.

"We need to break the culture of blaming the victims by saying, 'She was asking for it,' or 'They shouldn't have been drinking,'" he said. "People who commit rape are the only cause of rape. We need to focus on the perpetrators, not the victims."

Victims should be considered casualties, Strand said.

"We know with casualties, it generally doesn't matter whether they caused their injury, or how it happened," he said. "We take care of them and they don't stop being a casualty until they're okay."

During trauma, such as a sexual assault, the brain shuts down. Strand said victims don't have the decision-making abilities you might think.

"It's neuroscience," he said. "The perpetrator has a different brain during the assault. They have prefrontal cortex control and are thinking of planned, practiced and habitual behaviors. However, the victim's prefrontal cortex closes down. It helps us dissociate from the pain, fright and terror in some ways. Most likely the victim won't have any bruises, the perpetrator won't have any scratches and there won't be physical evidence of violence. This is what happens in most sexual assault cases."

In the U.S., 1.3 forcible rapes are committed every minute, 78 an hour and 1871 a day, Strand said. More men than women are sexually assaulted in the military each year. Last year 10,800 victims were men and 8,000 were women.

"Here's another problem - most men don't report it," he said. "Only 13 percent (at most) of men in the military do."

Strand said the average length of time women report a sexual assault is three months.  The average for men is 20-22 years, he said.

"In our society, the only socially acceptable emotion for a man to express most of the time is anger," he said. "When men are sexually assaulted, a lot of times they feel like their manhood has been robbed and destroyed. They fear they won't be believed or supported, and their career will be over."

The majority of victims who report sexual assault feel ostracized not necessarily by their leaders but by their peers, Strand said. 

"If you don't know what's going on at that lowest level, at their peer level, then you're wrong," Strand told leaders. "If you're not holding people accountable for disrespecting, harassing and ostracizing people, then you should be held responsible. You should know what is going on in your units at every level."

Brig. Gen. Andrew Armacost, the Academy's dean of the faculty, said Strand's message should ring true to every leader here.

"We need to foster a culture that supports causalities of sexual assault, and encourages men and women to come forward," he said. "As leaders, we must take care of all our Airmen, and ensure our Academy is a safe place to focus on our mission."