WaPo: AF's Interpersonal Violence Problem

11/10/2021

"About two-thirds of women and half of men in the Air Force experienced “interpersonal violence” within a period of two years, and most who reported it did not believe that their senior leaders were doing anything about it, according to the results of a survey released Tuesday.

The voluntary survey of 68,000 people was carried out over six weeks in the fall of 2020. Air Force officials said they were struck by the gap between how senior officials thought they were doing in responding to incidents that included bullying, harassment and assault, and how rank-and-file troops felt about their commanders’ performance.

“It seems to be uniformly true that people at the lower levels who have experience with these things are telling us that there is a problem, and that senior leadership is not receiving that there is that problem,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a phone call with reporters. “So, we’ve got an issue right there. At the end of the day, all of this is about leadership.”"

Link here.

Comment: A bad news cycle for the AF.

Brian L. Cox link

11/10/2021 02:35:05 pm

- Deliberately mischaracterizing data drawn from a survey to make it seem that the results represent sentiments expressed from across the entire branch.

- Deftly contorting the story to create some link to sexual assault in the military even though the actual survey has nothing to do with this topic.

- Taking a couple individual responses and amplifying them to create a narrative that seems to apply to the entire branch.

This style of reporting is definitely what we should all have come to expect from Dan Lamothe and Washington Post by now.

Here is what a non-sensationalist, but accurate, opening line might look like: "Two-thirds of women and nearly half of men who responded to a survey of Air Force personnel..."

Instead, we get, "Two-thirds of women and nearly half of men *in the Air Force* experienced 'interpersonal violence'"...according to a survey.

It's only a bad news cycle for the AF because of how the news chooses to characterize the story. That's fine, the media is going to do its thing and get rewarded with clicks and subscriptions.

In the real world, this story would actually be bad news if:

1) 100% of the Air Force community participated in the survey and 2/3 of respondents indicated that they experienced interpersonal violence (which, for present purposes, is defined as everything from "workplace rumor-mongering on the low end to serious cases of physical abuse" according to the report).

2) Air Force leadership expressed that they have reviewed the results of the survey and can't be bothered to do anything about it.

Is anyone aware of any indication that one of these two points is the case in reality?

Brenner

11/10/2021 03:05:35 pm

Apparently the Secretary of the department finds the data more concerning than you. Does that not give you pause?

11/10/2021 03:48:03 pm

Brenner,

I'm not sure that Sec. Kendall *does* find the data to be more concerning than I do. From what I can gather, it seems that he has expressed about the same amount of concern as I would if I were SecAF.

Here's a quote from Sec. Kendall:

“At the end of the day, all of this is about leadership...It’s about paying attention, listening to our airmen and guardians, listening to dependents, and taking seriously their concerns and acting on them.”

Seems like a fairly balanced policy approach to me. Now, if I thought 2/3 of *all* women and 1/2 of *all* men in the USAF community expressed that they had experienced "interpersonal violence," rather than the 10% of DAF members who participated in the survey, that might call for a more extreme policy response. Do you disagree?

(the SecAF quote is in a separate news story, available here:

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2021/11/09/tens-of-thousands-of-airmen-guardians-report-dealing-with-mental-or-physical-violence )

DON CHRISTENSEN

11/10/2021 04:00:37 pm

“We clearly have work to do to ensure that interpersonal violence is prevented,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. “When it does occur, we need to provide needed support to victims and deal effectively with perpetrators of violence – of any type.”

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2838907/department-of-the-air-force-releases-findings-on-interpersonal-violence-survey/

11/10/2021 04:21:21 pm

Don,

Another excerpt from the page at the link you copied:

"'Because of you, we gained vital insight into how we can better protect and support our people, no matter where their experience falls along the spectrum of violence,' said Under Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones.

Of the subset of about 10 percent of Airmen, Guardians, and the Department of the Air Force civilians who responded to the survey, 54 percent indicated they had experienced behaviors consistent with at least one type of interpersonal violence in the past two years."

This is superb. Senior leadership of the Air Force gets it. Implement "a three-pronged approach to collect information from active duty, Guard, Reserve, and civilian Department of the Air Force members by using a survey, administrative data, and qualitative data."

Study the data and learn from it, but don't pretend that results of a survey to which about 10% of the USAF community responds represents actual prevalence data for the entire community. Use the data to inform your policy approach. Take the results seriously and ensure that your community understands that you do.

This is only a bad news cycle for the USAF if the news chooses to portray it that way. In my book, this is an indication that we're on the right track. That should be good news.

Brenner M. Fissell

11/10/2021 04:22:43 pm

I understand you to be criticizing the methodology. Did you see that it was designed by RAND?

11/10/2021 04:59:52 pm

Brenner,

I believe I may have miscommunicated my perspective if it seems that I intend to criticize the methodology. Actually, I think the study methodology is superb. It's the manner in which the findings are characterized by Washington Post about which I intend to be critical.

Does senior AF leadership convey that 2/3 of women and 1/2 of men in the *entire AF community" have expressed that they have experienced interpersonal violence, or is that just the media. Because if this is the official claim, I would be critical of that, too.

Comments are closed.

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WaPo: AF's Interpersonal Violence Problem

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