The Sexual Violence Epidemic vs. the Uniform Code of Military Justice & Feres Doctrine

Less than 0.009% of reported assaults result in a conviction for a sex offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, raising serious concerns about the epidemic of sexual violence in the military. Despite this, more than 99% of allegations of sexual assault in the military are verified. The Uniform Code of Military Justice has been modified by recent congressional legislation but these modifications fall short of providing justice due to the prosecutorial discretion afforded to non-lawyer commanders. Moreover, service members are unable to bring claims of sexual violence to civilian courts when the military fails them due to the Supreme Court's unwillingness to reverse the horror that has been caused by the Feres doctrine. This Article proposes that a combined approach must be utilized, removing sexual harassment from commanders' discretion and amending the Federal Tort Claims Act to allow sexual violence claims to proceed on the merits without analysis under Feres.