The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is not able to accurately quantify the rate of sexual misconduct in the organization, nor the trends associated with it, despite several cycles of institutional reform in recent decades. Data fragmentation, poor data management, data not fit for purpose and a lack of accountability have obscured organizational knowledge on sexual misconduct, contributing to the “policy graveyard” phenomenon seen in recent attempts for military reform. The CAF must undertake a comprehensive audit of its data systems in order to integrate and repurpose its disjointed data assets. It must also adopt a comprehensive data governance strategy that will facilitate an organization-wide approach to sexual misconduct knowledge production. Stronger sexual misconduct data systems and data governance will directly contribute to success in institutional culture change, due to the critical function of analytics in organizational change processes.
