> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Fewer or More? Intimate Image Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-117a-trend-2021-2025/ - Published: 2026-10-28T06:33:13.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T08:04:23.000Z - Description: Army courts-martial charging Article 117a, the wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate images, fell from 6 cases in 2021 to 2 in 2025, for 22 in all. As a share of Army convictions, the offense was 1% in each year from 2021 through 2024. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 117a, Army [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 117a](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-117a-courts-martial/) › Army **Short answer:** Army courts-martial charging Article 117a, the wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate images, fell from 6 cases in 2021 to 2 in 2025, for 22 in all. As a share of Army convictions, the offense was 1% in each year from 2021 through 2024\. The median confinement was 4 months, compared with 6 months Army-wide. Based on 22 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Fewer Cases, the Same Share The yearly count was 2021: 6, 2022: 5, 2023: 5, 2024: 4, and 2025: 2\. The trials took place from February 2021 through April 2025\. Together the 22 cases were 1% of the 2,422 Army courts-martial in those years. Counts can mislead when the total number of cases changes, so the table measures each year as a share of Army convictions with offenses listed. Convictions including Article 117a were 1% in every year from 2021 through 2024\. They were 0% in 2025, when there was 1 such conviction. The yearly count of convictions was highest in 2021, at 6. With numbers this small, a single case changes the figures. The direction is more reliable than any one year. | Year | Convictions incl. Art. 117a | All convictions with offenses listed | Share | | ---- | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ----- | | 2021 | 6 | 467 | 1% | | 2022 | 4 | 424 | 1% | | 2023 | 5 | 408 | 1% | | 2024 | 3 | 428 | 1% | | 2025 | 1 | 388 | 0% | ## Most Cases Were Guilty Pleas A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Only 4 of these cases were contested, compared with 18 guilty pleas. The contested share was 18%, compared with 30% for the rest of the Army. All 18 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement (18 of 18). Army records say whether an agreement existed, but not what it said, so any sentence limits it set are not visible here. ## Who Decided Guilt? The accused usually chooses between a military judge alone and a panel of members. A judge alone heard 21 of these cases, and an enlisted panel heard 1\. No case went to an officer panel. Members heard 5% of cases, compared with 18% across the Army. Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, and few of these cases were contested. ## Shorter Confinement Than the Army Median Of 21 convictions, 19 included confinement. The median sentence was 4 months, shorter than the 6 months for the rest of the Army. A quarter of sentences were 1 year or longer. Terms under 6 months made up 52% of convictions here, compared with 39% Army-wide. Terms longer than one year were less common: 4 of 21 convictions (19%), compared with 28%. These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case. | Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Army as a whole | | ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | -------------------------- | | No confinement | 2 | 10% | 17% | | Under 6 months | 11 | 52% | 39% | | 6 months to 1 year | 4 | 19% | 16% | | More than 1 year, under 5 years | 3 | 14% | 20% | | 5 years or more | 1 | 5% | 8% | ## Other Charges in the Same Case Only 5 of the 22 cases charged Article 117a by itself. The other cases also included other charges. The most common were Article 134 (the general article) in 7 cases, Article 128 (assault) in 5, Article 115 (communicating threats) in 5, Article 92 (orders violation) in 4, and Article 120 (sexual assault) in 3. Because of those other charges, the sentence figures here cover whole cases. The records do not separate the punishment for the image offense from the punishment for anything else. ## Discharges, Rank, and Court Level A punitive discharge means a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Of 21 convicted enlisted members, 14 received one: 11 bad-conduct and 3 dishonorable. That is a smaller share than the 73% across the Army. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. The accused were 14 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 8 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), with 0 officers or warrant officers. That group is more junior than the Army as a whole, where 55% were junior enlisted. General courts-martial made up 73% of these cases (16 of 22). A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. ## Where the Cases Were Tried Fort Carson, Fort Hood, Fort Bliss, and Fort Drum each had 3 cases, and Fort Campbell had 2\. Together those installations had 64% of the 22 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so these counts do not show a problem at any one installation. ## Covered Offense Rules After 2023 Article 117a is a covered offense. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. When every guilty finding in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge also sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both rules depend on when the offense happened, and these records give trial dates only. Trials from 2024 on include old-rule and new-rule cases. The records cannot show whether the lower counts in those years are connected to the change. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, and Army records in this data are sparse before 2021. Army convictions that included Article 117a, by year: 2021 6, 2022 4, 2023 5, 2024 3, 2025 16202142022520233202412025 Army convictions that included Article 117a, by year ## Limits of the Records Only cases tried by court-martial are counted. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and cases closed without action are not included. The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Army courts-martial tried 2021–2025 that charged Article 117a (22 cases). The trend line uses convictions whose records list the offenses found, by trial year. Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com. ## Related Analysis - [Article 117a (Wrongful Broadcast of Intimate Visual Images): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-117a-courts-martial/) (hub) - [Army Courts-Martial: Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-courts-martial/) (hub) - [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) (hub) - [How Has Article 117a Changed in Air Force Courts-Martial Since 2016?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-117a-trend-2016-2025/) (another service) - [Fewer or More? Intimate Image Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-117a-trend-2017-2025/) (another service) - [Army Article 107 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-107-trend-2021-2025/) - [Army Article 112a Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-112a-trend-2021-2025/) - [Army Article 115 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-115-trend-2021-2025/) - [How Much Confinement for an Article 117a Conviction in the Army?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-117a-sent-2021-2025/) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/) (members) **About the author.** Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts *Where All The Bodies Are Buried* and runs the [Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.