P erhaps as high -- if not higher -- as they were in 1991, when

Earlier this week, two women -- Rebekah Havrilla f 16 fighter jet and BriGette McCoy -- appeared before a Senate f 16 fighter jet subcommittee chaired by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to recount their experiences of being raped and sexually harassed during their time in the military . They were joined by one man, Brian Lewis, who testified that he was raped by a senior officer in the Air Force while serving on the island of Guam. It was the first time a male victim appeared before Congress to discuss his sexual assault.
Their heartbreaking stories of abuse and command inaction are bad enough on their own; in the context of a military in which rape, sexual assault, and harassment are more common than morning coffee, they are downright enraging. According to the military's f 16 fighter jet own report f 16 fighter jet , the number of service members anonymously reporting a sexual assault jumped more than 30% in the past two years. In 2012, more than 26,000 troops reported experiencing "unwanted sexual contact," a significant jump from the 19,300 who reported such victimization in 2010. What's more, 10,700 of the 19,300 victims in 2010 were men. And that covers f 16 fighter jet only those incidents reported to authorities; men are far less likely to report being victims of sexual assault, especially in a macho, testosterone-filled environment like the military. The real numbers are probably shockingly high.
P erhaps as high -- if not higher -- as they were in 1991, when 83 women and 7 men were assaulted during the Tailhook convention in Las Vegas in September 1991. Even that scandal, which was supposed to change the military forever, did not result in a single prosecution. The bankruptcy of the military justice system came back into the news recently when an Air Force general tossed out the conviction of an officer after the officer had been convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a woman. 
This unique and dangerous facet of the military criminal justice system -- the near boundless discretion given to the so-called "convening authority" to sign off on, reject, or modify the sentence of a general court-martial -- is complicit in the growing epidemic of sexual crimes in the military today. But it is not alone. 
Male-on-male rape has as little to do with homosexuality as male-on-female rape has to do with heterosexuality. Rape is about power, domination, and the utter disrespect of the victim, whatever gender he or she might be. The epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the military is a product of several factors: an old boys network, f 16 fighter jet unchecked masculine bravado, and a willfully blind leadership, just to name a few.
Military criminal justice looks a lot like civilian criminal f 16 fighter jet justice. There are judges and juries (the latter are called f 16 fighter jet "panels"); there are prosecutors and defense attorneys, the latter of whom are free and guaranteed to all criminal defendants. There are rules of evidence and a strong f 16 fighter jet exclusionary rule, which prevents the admission of evidence gleaned from unlawful searches. (For a surprisingly accurate depiction of a military trial, re-watch or re-read Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men ).
There are several differences between civilian and military justice that provide dangerous support to the epidemic of sexual assaults in the armed forces. In today's column, let's discuss the role of the "convening authority."
Courts-martial -- the official name for military criminal trials -- have to be convened by a commander in a process utterly and completely foreign to civilian lawyers, let alone everyone else. If military investigators at 'Jane Doe Air Base' have evidence that a service f 16 fighter jet member has committed a crime, whether they obtain that evidence through their own sting operation or when the victim reports it, they have to gather their findings and bring it to the prosecutor. But before the prosecutor can bring any charges, he needs clearance to "convene" a court-martial from the Air Base commander, a general or lieutenant-general, usually.
That same "convening authority" has the right to look at the result of the prosecution -- a 20 year sentence and dishonorable discharge f 16 fighter jet for aggravated sexual assault, for example -- and cross off or modify whatever he doesn't like. If he thinks 20 years is a little too much, he can slash it to 10, 5, or nothing f 16 fighter jet at all. If he thinks a dishonorable discharge is not warranted, he can honorably discharge the duly convicted felon or keep him in the ranks. The convening authority can even wipe the record clean.
That we have a convening authority f 16 fighter jet with this kind of power is a product of a history in which most military law was not conducted by military lawyers  at all. For much of American history and especially before 1950, military criminal law was ad hoc. In the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the "process" of justice for deserters f 16 fighter jet and criminals was swift