Hazing in the U.S. Armed Forces Recommendations for Hazing Prevention Policy and Practice Kirsten M. Keller, Miriam Matthews, Kimberly Curry Hall, William Marcellino, Jacqueline A. Mauro, Nelson Lim C O R P O R A T I O N For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/rr941 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keller, Kirsten M. Hazing in the U.S. Armed Forces : recommendations for hazing prevention policy and practice / Kirsten M. Keller, Miriam Matthews, Kimberly Curry Hall, William Marcellino, Jacqueline A. Mauro, Nelson Lim. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8330-9027-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. United States—Armed Forces—Military life. 2. Bullying—United States. 3. Hazing— United States—Government policy. 4. Military offenses—United States. 5. Soldiers— United States—Social conditions. I. Title. II. Title: Recommendations for hazing prevention policy and practice. 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RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Preface Initiation activities have long been part of U.S. military culture as a way to mark signicant transitions, status changes, and group membership. However, along with these activities have often come acts of hazing, in which individuals are subjected to abusive and harmful treatment. In recent years, extreme cases of alleged hazing have led to the high- prole deaths of several service members, resulting in renewed interest from the public and Congress in seeing these hazing rituals eliminated from military culture. In 2012, to help build a more-systematic approach to hazing prevention and response, the Oce of the Secretary of Defense had the Oce of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity form a working group composed of representatives from each of the services to address hazing. e Oce of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity then asked RAND to support the working group’s eorts by examining and providing recommendations on current hazing pre- vention policy and practices across the services. RAND was asked to address the following objectives: • Determine whether the 1997 denition of hazing is relevant or should be rened to better track hazing incidents across the armed forces. • Identify practices to prevent and respond to incidents of hazing. • Examine the feasibility of and key data elements needed for a comprehensive hazing incident database. In this report, we address ways to improve the armed forces’ de- nition of hazing, the eects of and motivations for hazing, how the iii iv Hazing in the U.S. Armed Forces armed forces can prevent and respond to hazing, and how the armed forces can improve the tracking of hazing incidents. is report should be of interest to policymakers responsible for hazing prevention and response both within the military and the public. is research was sponsored by the Oce of Diversity Manage- ment and Equal Opportunity within the Oce of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and was conducted within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Oce of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Sta, the Unied Combatant Commands, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community under con- tract number W91WAW-12-C-0030. For more information on the RAND Forces and Resources Policy Center, see http://www.rand.org/nsrd/ndri/centers/frp.html or contact the Center director (contact information provided on the web page). Contents Preface ............................................................................. iii Summary .......................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ............................................................. xix Abbreviations .................................................................... xxi CHAPTER ONE Introduction ....................................................................... 1 Study Tasks and Analytical Approach ........................................... 2 Organization of the Report ....................................................... 4 CHAPTER TWO Dening Hazing .................................................................. 5 Knowledge of Hazing .............................................................. 6 Hazing Denitions ................................................................. 9 Assessing the Current DoD Denition of Hazing ............................18 Conclusion .........................................................................21 CHAPTER THREE e Eects of and Motivations for Hazing ................................ 23 Hazing as a Ritual or Initiation Rite .......................................... 23 Proposed Eects of Hazing on Hazees ........................................ 26 Proposed Factors Contributing to Support for Hazing Among Hazers ....29 A Taxonomy of Hazing in the Military ........................................32 Conclusion ........................................................................ 42 v vi Hazing in the U.S. Armed Forces CHAPTER FOUR Preventing and Responding to Hazing in the Armed Forces ............45 Potential Levels of Antihazing Eorts ......................................... 46 Current Hazing Training in the Armed Forces ...............................53 Recommendations ................................................................59 Conclusion ........................................................................ 60 CHAPTER FIVE Understanding the Prevalence and Characteristics of Hazing Incidents ............................................................63 e Importance of Tracking Hazing Incidents ................................63 Tracking Hazing Incidents at the Service Level .............................. 64 Potential DoD-Wide Hazing Database .........................................73 Measuring Hazing rough Surveys .......................................... 80 Conclusion .........................................................................83 CHAPTER SIX Conclusions and Recommendations .........................................85 Dening Hazing ..................................................................85 Why Hazing Occurs ............................................................. 86 Preventing and Responding to Hazing in the Armed Forces ............... 87 Understanding the Prevalence and Characteristics of Hazing Incidents ...................................................................... 88 Conclusion ........................................................................ 90 APPENDIXES A. Overview of Study Methodology ........................................93 B. A Case Study in Hazing Reform ........................................ 97 C. Coding of Service-Level Hazing Prevention Training and Education................................................................... 109 References ....................................................................... 115 Tables S.1. Characteristics of Current Service Tracking Methods ..........xv 2.1. Denitions of Hazing Used by Texas, California, North Carolina, and Virginia ..............................................13 3.1. Hazing Taxonomy ...................................................33 4.1. Antihazing Training Structure in the Armed Forces ............55 4.2. Antihazing Training Characteristics in the Armed Forces .... 56 4.3. Antihazing Training Techniques in the Armed Forces..........57 5.1. Characteristics of Current Service Tracking Methods ..........70 C.1. Codebook for Training Material Content ...................... 111 C.2. Codebook for Training Techniques ............................. 114 vii Summary Initiation activities have long been part of U.S. military culture as a way to mark signicant transitions, status changes, and group mem- bership. However, along with these activities have often come acts of hazing, in which individuals were subjected to abusive and harmful treatment that went beyond sanctioned ceremonies. In recent years, extreme cases of alleged hazing have led to the high-prole deaths of several service members, resulting in renewed interest from the public and Congress in seeing these hazing rituals eliminated from military culture. In 2012, to help build a more-systematic approach to hazing prevention and response, the Oce of the Secretary of