What Sentence Follows an Army Child Endangerment Conviction?

Trends › By Offense › Article 119b › What Sentence Follows a Army child endan

Based on 35 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Longer Terms Than Across the Army

Confinement was part of 91% of the 35 convictions. Half of the terms were 10 months or less, compared with a 6-month median across Army convictions. A quarter were 1.5 years or longer.

Terms of more than 1 year but under 5 years were given in 11 convictions, or 31%, compared with 20% Army-wide. Only 1 conviction included 5 years or more (3%, compared with 8%). Terms of 6 months to 1 year made up 29%, compared with 16%. Terms under 6 months made up 29%, compared with 39%. Only 3 convictions (9%) had no confinement.

Adjudged, Not Served

These are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial. They come before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case, not only the child endangerment charge.

Domestic Violence in the Same Case

Most of these cases involved more than one article: 27 of the 35. Article 128b (domestic violence) was the most common other charge, in 18 cases. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 11, Article 134 (general article) in 6, Article 115 (communicating threats) in 5, and Article 92 (orders violation) in 4.

Article 128b is a covered offense. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. The records do not give offense dates, so they cannot show which cases came under that system.

Court Level and Contested Trials

General courts-martial heard 22 of the cases and special courts-martial 13. General courts-martial were 63% of these cases, compared with 72% across Army convictions. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement.

Sentences were different at each level. The general courts-martial had a median confinement of 1.1 years, and 41% were contested. The special courts-martial had a median of 4 months, and none were contested. Since 2019, a special court-martial can also be tried by a military judge alone, with confinement limited to six months and no punitive discharge. This page does not separate those cases from other special courts-martial.

Pleas and Plea Agreements

There were 26 guilty pleas and 9 not-guilty or mixed pleas. The contested share was 26%. A contested case is one where the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Across Army convictions the contested share was 21%.

Army records note whether a guilty plea came with an agreement, though not what it said. Of the 26 guilty pleas, 25 are recorded with one and 1 has no entry.

Who Decided Guilt

A military judge alone decided guilt in 30 cases. Enlisted panels heard 4 cases and an officer panel heard 1. Members heard 14% of cases, compared with 12% across Army convictions. The accused usually chooses the forum, and judge-alone trials are mostly guilty pleas.

Discharges and Rank

Of 32 convicted enlisted members, 24 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (75%), about the same as the 73% across Army convictions. Of those 24, 3 were dishonorable. Among 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, 1 was dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

By rank, the accused were 19 junior enlisted members, 13 NCOs, and 3 officers. That is similar to Army convictions overall.

Years and Installations

The 35 cases were tried between March 2021 and December 2025: 6 in 2021, 6 in 2022, 10 in 2023, 4 in 2024, and 9 in 2025.

Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Bliss had 4 cases each, and Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, and Fort Riley had 3 each. Together these had 49% of the cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so the list does not show much about any one installation.

Beyond the Courtroom

These figures cover only cases that reached a court-martial. Matters handled by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action do not appear. The records do not describe the evidence or plea terms. The records list trial dates, not offense dates, so trials from 2024 on include cases under the older sentencing rules and the parameters that apply to offenses after December 27, 2023. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

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. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.