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The Department of Defense (DoD) Definition of Hazing Can Be Improved

• The definition should include qualities that distinguish hazing from other types of abuse and mistreatment.
• It should clarify the role of authority figures and the individual's responsibility.
• It should consider the addition of more objective terms in describing harm, such as "psychological injury" or "extreme mental stress" and provide current examples.

The Effects of and Motivations for Hazing Need to be Addressed

• Among other things, proponents of hazing argue that acts of hazing or harsh initiation rituals contribute to increased liking of, commitment to, and cohesion within the group.
• However, evidence for these different effects is mixed, and research and reports demonstrate that hazing can lead to physical and psychological injuries among hazees.

DoD Does Not Currently Have a Clear Understanding of the Scope of the Hazing Problem

• Once the department has a clear definition of hazing and is able to uniformly track hazing incidents and better assess scope, it can then better determine whether to invest in a DoD-wide database system or whether service-level tracking remains sufficient.
• Elements DoD should consider tracking include victim and perpetrator characteristics, location, circumstances, types of behavior, and incident severity.
• Confidential or anonymous surveys should be used to supplement reported incident databases to give a more-comprehensive assessment of hazing across the services.