纽约时报 为何美军内部性侵频发(1)（在线收听）

For decades, sexual assault and harassment have festered through the ranks of the armed forces with military leaders repeatedly promising reform and then failing to live up to those promises. Women remain a distinct minority, making up only 16.5 percent of the armed services, yet nearly one in four servicewomen reports experiencing sexual assault in the military, and more than half report experiencing harassment, according to a meta-analysis of 69 studies published in 2018 in the journal Trauma, Violence & Abuse. (Men are victims of assault and harassment, too, though at significantly lower rates than women.) One key reason troops who are assaulted rarely see justice is the way in which such crimes are investigated and prosecuted. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, military commanders decide whether to investigate and pursue legal action — responsibilities that in the civilian world are overseen by dedicated law enforcement.

数十年来，军队中的性侵犯和性骚扰问题不断恶化，军队领导人一再承诺进行改革，但之后又未能兑现这些承诺。根据《创伤、暴力与虐待》期刊2018年根据69项研究发布的荟萃分析，女性仍是军队中明显的少数群体，武装部队中的女军人数量仅占16.5%，但近四分之一的女军人报告在军队中遭受过性侵，超过一半的女军人报告遭受过骚扰。（男性也是侵犯和骚扰的受害者，尽管比率远低于女性。）遭受侵犯的军人很少得到公正的一个关键原因是调查和起诉此类罪行的方式。根据《军事司法统一法典》，军事指挥官决定是否调查并采取法律行动——而在平民世界，这些责任由专门的执法部门监督。

Some politicians have been fighting, and failing, for years to change these military laws. Every year since 2013, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has introduced legislation to move the decision to prosecute major military crimes, including sex crimes, out of the hands of commanders and into those of independent prosecutors. And every year, it has failed to move forward. Historically, the Pentagon has vehemently opposed the idea, saying that it would undermine institutional leadership. During a 2019 Senate hearing, Vice Adm. John G. Hannink, judge advocate general of the Navy, testified that removing authority over serious crimes from commanders "would have a detrimental impact on the ability of those commanders — and other commanders — to ensure good order and discipline."多年来，一些政客一直在为改变这些军事法律而斗争，但均以失败告终。自2013年以来，纽约州参议员基尔斯滕·吉利布兰德每年都会提出立法，将起诉包括性犯罪在内的重大军事犯罪的决定从指挥官手中转移到独立检察官手中。但每一年，这都未能取得进展。从历史上看，五角大楼强烈反对这一想法，称这将削弱机构领导地位。在2019年的参议院听证会上，海军中将、海军总检察长约翰·G·汉尼克作证称，取消指挥官对严重罪行的管辖权“将对这些指挥官以及其他指挥官确保良好秩序和纪律的能力产生有害影响。”

But this year has seen the arrival of a new administration, the end of a 20-year war in Afghanistan and the United States military's reckoning with many of the politically heated questions also being debated across America, including demands to change the names of bases named after Confederate leaders, accusations of racial bias and sexism across the armed services and right-wing backlash over the supposed teaching of "critical race theory" to service members. It's a combination of events that could help shepherd into the Pentagon some of the most significant policy reforms in a generation.

但今年，新一届政府上台，持续20年的阿富汗战争结束，以及美国军方应对许多政治热点问题的方式也在全美展开辩论，包括要求更改以南部邦联领导人命名的基地名称，对军队中存在种族偏见和性别歧视的指控，以及右翼对所谓向军人传授“批判种族理论”的强烈反对。这是一系列事件的结合，有助于引导五角大楼进行一代人以来最重大的政策改革。