The military is bringing significantly more domestic violence cases against service members to court, including an increasing share of senior ranking officers, with conviction skyrocketing in a surge tied to a major overhaul of how serious crimes are prosecuted in the ranks.
The shift comes after years of fights in Congress, with advocates insisting that crimes were being overlooked, and opponents arguing that potential changes would undermine commanders, culminating in a revamping of the system passed by lawmakers as part of an annual defense policy bill in 2022.
According to military court data reviewed by Military.com, 43 soldiers in the Army were convicted of Article 128b – the charge for domestic violence – in 2021. That number more than doubled in 2024 to at least 101. The Marine Corps saw roughly 24 convictions for domestic violence in 2024, double the total number from 2019 through 2021, according to records posted online. The Navy, which had three convictions in 2021 and 2022, had 16 in 2024, while the Air Force, with 10 convictions in 2021, had 21 in 2024.
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While many incidents still go unpunished, the new legal system, which removed commanders from decisions on prosecution and handed authority to the services' independent Offices of Special Trial Counsel, is seeing success after just 17 months of existence.
The shift has not only resulted in more convictions, it has affected the share of cases involving more senior ranks, according to court data.
In the Army in 2020, junior enlisted soldiers made up 56% of domestic violence cases; that figure is down to 43% so far this year.
In 2023, seven of the 11 domestic violence convictions in the Navy were junior enlisted personnel; in 2024, while the number of convictions among junior sailors rose by three, they made up just half the total convictions.
Military.com is investigating how the military responds to domestic violence and how the issue impacts the military community. If you have experienced abuse in any form -- whether physical, emotional, financial or psychological -- and have dealt with military authorities, the legal system or leadership, we'd like to hear your story. Your insights are vital to uncovering patterns and holding institutions accountable, and we understand the sensitivity of this topic, ensuring your submission will be treated confidentially. Information on talking to us can be found here.
Despite the improvements in prosecutions and convictions under the new system, thousands of cases may still be falling through the cracks. In 2022, a Defense Department report documented 8,307 incidents that met the criteria for domestic abuse. Fourteen people died from violent incidents linked to service members, including five who previously reported their abuse.
That year, the rate of domestic spouse abuse incidents in the military was 11 per 1,000 married couples; that same year, the civilian U.S. rate, which included current or former intimate partners or family members -- a broader definition than married spouses -- was 4.9 per 1,000.
Yet also in that year, there were just 69 convictions across the services. Prosecutors face steep challenges in bringing such cases to trial, often hampered by limited physical evidence and the financial leverage frequently held by the accused within the household.
Kate Ranta, the former wife of an Air Force major who testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee in 2019 on her experience seeking justice for domestic violence, said the special trial counsels provide hope when previously there had been "absolute silence."
Despite an investigation that confirmed incidents of domestic abuse and fraud by Ranta's then-husband, Air Force Maj. Thomas Maffei, in 2011, and a recommendation from the investigators that he face court-martial, the case was referred back to Maffei's command, and he was allowed to leave the service with 25 years and retirement pay.
A year later, Maffei showed up at Ranta's door and shot both her and her father, in front of the couple's four-year-old son.
"The lethality that eventually happened on our end -- almost death -- could absolutely have been avoided," Ranta said during an interview with Military.com. "I was so let down by the military machine."
Ranta eventually found justice in the civilian court system; Maffei was sentenced to 60 years in prison, though often domestic violence cases do not result in such significant punishments.
She said the services have a long way to go to remove violent offenders from their ranks. But the data from the past year and a half is heartening.
"Taking the power away from the command absolutely is important for saving lives. These commanders obviously were biased. The commands have no business over a situation like this," Ranta said.
Taking Power From Commands
The new approach to handling domestic violence charges came about after a successful decadelong effort by congressional Democrats to remove the decision-making process for prosecuting violent crimes that aren't related to military service from commanders and hand it to specially trained attorneys. The Offices of Special Trial Counsels are independent bodies made up of judge advocates general, paralegals and administrators assigned to review violent crimes in the U.S. military, such as domestic abuse, sexual assault and homicide, and decide whether to prosecute.
The program, which became operational across all service branches in late 2023, represents the most consequential military justice reforms in a generation.
A review of Army data also shows midlevel to senior ranks are going to trial more often and being convicted at higher rates than before the establishment of the special trial counsel, suggesting that, beforehand, commands were shielding officers and noncommissioned officers from accountability.
The Air Force, which had no convictions in 2023 for anyone with the rank of E-7 or above, had three in 2024.
The Marine Corps saw a slight increase in the number of convictions in 2024 over 2023, but with very little change in the ranks of those convicted, with the junior enlisted ranks making up more than half the convictions each year.
"There's all sorts of conflicts embedded in a system where a non-legal expert in the chain of command is making decisions. But I don't know if that would be more pronounced [regarding] higher ranking [individuals]. It's an interesting question," said Josh Connolly, senior vice president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military victims of violence, sexual assault and racism.
Connolly served as chief of staff to former Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., during the congresswoman's fight to pass the Military Justice Improvement Act. Speier, who was a victim of sexual assault as a child, worked closely with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., an attorney who never served in the military but whose pro bono work as a private lawyer included representing victims of domestic abuse, to push through the reform.
Military spouses may be uniquely vulnerable to the crime, often living far from family and support networks. They may also be socially and geographically isolated on base and dependent on their partner's career for housing, health care and financial stability. The services consist of a combustible mix of frequent deployments, chronic stress, rigid hierarchies, and a culture that often prioritizes cohesion and career preservation over accountability.
An alarming rise in the number of sexual assaults reported by U.S. service members in the early 2000s prompted Gillibrand in 2013 to introduce the Military Justice Improvement Act, a proposal to remove the authority for prosecuting these cases from unit commanders.
The Pentagon and lawmakers who served in the military strongly opposed the bill, saying it would undermine commanders' authority and erode discipline and force cohesion.
"We want to keep professional relationships between those who order the unit to engage the enemy so that those who follow the orders will never believe that there's some special relationship between the commander and a particular individual in the unit, because that will break good order and discipline apart," South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, an Air Force Reserve colonel, said at the time.
The legislation did not get enough votes to be considered by the Senate, but Gillibrand was undeterred, and for each year until 2021, she introduced some version of it, eventually winning bipartisan sponsorship from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, an Army National Guard officer who revealed in 2019 that she, too, had been a victim of sexual assault, and a majority of senators.
When it finally passed in 2022, it was a significantly stronger change to military law than simply removing sexual assault prosecution decisions from commanders' purview. It also included a raft of violent non-military-related crimes, including domestic violence, kidnapping and murder.
As a result of the law, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps set up independent counsel offices in December 2023. Surprisingly, commanders willingly handed over their hardest criminal cases, without much opposition, according Christine Wormuth, who served as secretary of the Army at the time.
"Those were all the talking points we heard," Wormuth said in an interview with Military.com, referencing reported objections to the move. "But once the change happened ... you didn't see that come to pass."
Until 2019, the military didn't even have a stand-alone charge for domestic violence. Most offenses were prosecuted under generic assault statutes, making it nearly impossible to track the scope of abuse within the ranks. Just 14 domestic violence convictions were recorded across the Army in 2020, a lag that may be attributed to implementation delays during the rollout of the new charge and related shifts in legal policy.
"Separating it out allows us to assess the risk better; we see it better now," Brig. Gen. Chris Kennebeck, who oversees the Army's Office of Special Trial Counsel, said to Military.com in an interview, referring to the service's ability to now better understand the scope of domestic violence in the ranks.
In addition to the independent legal counsels, the Army's own investigative arm also has undergone a quiet but dramatic transformation. Under Director Gregory Ford -- the first civilian to lead the Criminal Investigation Division -- the agency hired hundreds of agents and revamped training after a scathing review of its handling of Spc. Vanessa Guillén's 2020 murder at Fort Cavazos, Texas. The investigation found CID was chronically understaffed, under-resourced, and poorly equipped to handle complex cases.
Despite the improvements, making cases still isn't always simple, according to Kennebeck.
"There are seldom third-party witnesses or video or much physical evidence," he said. "Getting a witness to testify is very difficult. Victims will sometimes agree in the beginning -- but it affects their livelihood because their spouse is often the breadwinner."
Aid for Victims
In a quiet but possibly consequential policy shift, Army Emergency Relief, the primary nonprofit supporting soldiers and families with grants and loans, made it easier for victims of spousal abuse to access financial assistance. Previously, victims needed to go through their abuser's chain of command to request support -- a hurdle that likely discourages many from seeking help or even being aware of resources available.
"From a unit standpoint, there isn't much you can do for monetary support," said Tony Grinston, AER's director, who recently retired from the Army after serving as its top enlisted leader. "The same person abusing is usually the one that controls the money."
AER recently gave a $4,000 grant to a victim of abuse to move across the country, but Grinston's not sure how widely known the resource is, saying AER has helped 17 victims of violence with $18,000 of relief. He wants more victims to know about the program.
In creating the grants, the Army has joined the aid societies of the other services in providing funds for victims of domestic violence. The Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society works closely with the sea services' Family Advocacy Programs to understand their needs and provides assistance according to need.
The Air Force Aid Society provides grants up to $3,500 for families to use to rebuild their lives. The assistance is available to active-duty, National Guard and reserve personnel; spouses enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, or DEERS; retirees; and surviving spouses.
Many who are victims of domestic violence don't know about those resources, and many do not appear to be reporting incidents. Military spouses often face steep barriers to financial independence, a reality rooted in the transient and insular nature of military life. Frequent relocations disrupt career momentum, making it nearly impossible to build long-term employment.
Even when jobs are available, many military bases are in rural or economically depressed areas with limited opportunities. Meanwhile, military benefits like subsidized housing and health care are tied to the service member, consolidating economic power in one partner and leaving the other dependent.
An Army audit of 10 representative installations in July 2023 found that more than 4,000 incidents between fiscal 2019 and 2021 weren't counted in the service's two databases that track domestic abuse, according to information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO.
Advocates worry that with the Defense Department's emphasis on fighting sexual assault and harassment in the ranks -- based on a 2021 survey, 29,601 service members likely experienced unwanted sexual contact that year -- domestic violence does not get the attention it deserves.
"There's not a legitimate reason," said Connolly, the senior vice president of Protect Our Defenders.
An increase in domestic violence prosecutions points to a slow, but meaningful shift in how abuse is handled. The research indicating that domestic violence is more prevalent in the military community than in the general population suggests that, even with improvements to support and accountability, much more will likely need to be done to combat the threat of domestic violence for military families.
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