Violence Involving Sailors: approaches for reducing the rates of violence

Abstract

Violence involving sailors is a problem that the Commander, THIRD fleet is committed to addressing. This study examined the relationship between sailor violence and location, time of year, policy directives, global tensions, and communication practices aimed at violence prevention. Results indicate that reporting of violent incidents is often incomplete or inaccurate, which impacts the ability to derive certain conclusions. However, the data suggest that sailors in paygrades from E3 to E5 are more likely to be involved in violent incidents, and that alcohol was potentially a factor in at least half the incidents reported. Additionally, communication on the topic by leaders was found to be important, and implications for communicating about the issues are discussed. Recommendations included developing common standards for reporting violent incidents, engaging in focused prevention measures, giving equal attention to both alcohol misuse and violence prevention, ensuring effective communication, empowering all leaders (E4 to O9) to address violence prevention, delivering training that reaches sailors, requiring units in high OPSTEMPO take additional precautions, requiring that units precede major phase changes with violence prevention messages, continuing holiday-related anti-violence messages, and monitoring new manning units (e.g., Sea Swap) for violence characteristics.-- p. i