Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement Charges: How Often Federal Trials and Courts-Martial End in Acquittal
Of 143 contested courts-martial for sexual offenses against a child in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps that reached a verdict, 47 ended in a full acquittal (33%). In federal court, 6 of 245 trials ended in an acquittal (2%). These rates count different groups of cases, so the gap does not measure h
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In brief: Of 143 contested courts-martial for sexual offenses against a child in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps that reached a verdict, 47 ended in a full acquittal (33%). In federal court, 6 of 245 trials ended in an acquittal (2%). These rates count different groups of cases, so the gap does not measure how accused people fare in each system.
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 3,131 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, compared with court-martial results from this site's Military Trial Results data (updated November 2, 2026). The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
How Often Did Contested Courts-Martial End in a Full Acquittal?
The court-martial records cover contested cases with trial dates from 2016 to 2025. 143 reached a verdict. 47 (33%) ended in a full acquittal, and 39 (27%) were partial acquittals, meaning not guilty of at least one charge and guilty of another.
Air Force records rarely list the charges in acquittals, so Air Force cases are left out of this comparison.
How Often Did Federal Trials End in Acquittal?
The Federal Judicial Center counted 3,131 defendants charged under 18 U.S.C. 2422 or 2423, the enticement and travel statutes, whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Of those, 2,739 (87%) pleaded guilty, 147 (5%) had their cases dismissed, and 245 (8%) went to trial.
Of the 245 trials, 6 ended in an acquittal (2%). There were 227 jury trials with 6 acquittals (3%), and 18 bench trials, decided by a judge, with 0 acquittals.
2,978 of the 3,131 defendants (95%) were convicted, by plea or at trial.
Why Are These Rates Not Directly Comparable?
The court-martial rate uses contested cases that reached a verdict. The federal rate uses trials among all cases that ended.
Federal case data does not report partial acquittals separately, while the court-martial records do. The federal count also includes dismissals, which the court-martial comparison does not.
A federal felony needs a grand jury indictment. A court-martial has no grand jury, and an Article 32 hearing officer's conclusions are recommendations. The cases that reach a verdict in each system may have been screened differently.
Does the Decision-Maker Matter?
The court-martial records show who decided guilt in some cases. A judge alone decided 50 cases, with 12 full acquittals (24%). Members decided 46 cases, with 17 full acquittals (37%).
Enlisted members decided 39 cases, with 17 full acquittals (44%). Officer members decided 7 cases, with 0 full acquittals. In 47 cases no forum was listed, and 18 ended in a full acquittal (38%).
The counts are small and overlapping, so the records do not support a firm conclusion about any one forum.
What Does Each Year Show?
The highest court-martial share in a single year was 11 of 20 in 2022, and the lowest was 1 of 6 in 2020. The federal counts were 0 acquittals in several years, with a high of 2 of 23 in 2021.
Neither series shows a steady direction, and each year holds few verdicts.
| Year | Courts-martial: full acquittals of contested cases | Federal: acquittals of trials |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3 of 5 | 1 of 25 |
| 2017 | 2 of 4 | 0 of 15 |
| 2018 | 3 of 14 | 0 of 13 |
| 2019 | 2 of 9 | 0 of 24 |
| 2020 | 1 of 6 | 1 of 21 |
| 2021 | 6 of 25 | 2 of 23 |
| 2022 | 11 of 20 | 1 of 34 |
| 2023 | 6 of 20 | 0 of 26 |
| 2024 | 6 of 26 | 1 of 33 |
| 2025 | 7 of 14 | 0 of 31 |
What Do the Federal Case Totals Look Like Each Year?
The federal share of defendants who pleaded guilty ranged from 84% in 2016 to 90% in 2017 and 2021. The number of trials ranged from 13 in 2018 to 34 in 2022.
Dismissals ranged from 2% in 2021 to 7% in 2016 and 2018.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 265 | 84% | 7% | 25 | 1 (4%) |
| 2017 | 270 | 90% | 5% | 15 | 0 (0%) |
| 2018 | 250 | 88% | 7% | 13 | 0 (0%) |
| 2019 | 287 | 87% | 4% | 24 | 0 (0%) |
| 2020 | 255 | 86% | 6% | 21 | 1 (5%) |
| 2021 | 286 | 90% | 2% | 23 | 2 (9%) |
| 2022 | 406 | 86% | 6% | 34 | 1 (3%) |
| 2023 | 310 | 87% | 5% | 26 | 0 (0%) |
| 2024 | 400 | 88% | 4% | 33 | 1 (3%) |
| 2025 | 402 | 89% | 3% | 31 | 0 (0%) |
What Do the Records Not Show?
The records do not show why a case ended in an acquittal, or what evidence was presented. They also do not show how many cases were never charged.
It would take matching case-by-case data to compare the systems directly, and no such data are available here.
How We Counted
Courts-martial: Army, Navy, and Marine Corps courts-martial charging sexual offenses against a child (Article 120b; federal child-victim sexual abuse, enticement, and travel offenses) with trial dates in 2016 to 2025 that were contested and reached a verdict (143). Federal: defendants charged under 18 U.S.C. 2422 or 2423 (enticement and travel) whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 (3,131; 245 trials), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
Different cases reach each system. Federal prosecutors bring a narrow set of cases. In fiscal year 2024, immigration and drug trafficking cases were 59% of everyone sentenced in federal court (36,664 of 61,678). Many crimes that the military prosecutes, such as most assaults, most sexual assaults between adults, and drug use, are usually state crimes for civilians and reach federal court only in special situations, such as on federal land or in Indian Country. A federal case and a court-martial for the same crime can involve different kinds of facts.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
Offense categories do not line up exactly. Each comparison uses a federal offense group chosen to match the military article as closely as possible (see the crosswalk). Some matches are close; others are partial. The post says which federal guideline or statute was used and why it is not an exact match.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement: Federal Cases vs. Article 120b Courts-Martial (overview)
- Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement Sentences Since the 2023 Military Sentencing Reform: What the Data Shows So Far
- Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement Charges: Federal Trial Acquittals vs. Contested Army Courts-Martial
- Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement Charges: Federal Trial Acquittals vs. Contested Marine Corps Courts-Martial
- Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement Charges: Federal Trial Acquittals vs. Contested Navy Courts-Martial
- Guilty Pleas in Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement Cases: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial
- Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement Convictions of Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4): Courts-Martial Compared With Federal Court
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials? (related comparison)
- Guilty Pleas in Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, Year by Year (related comparison)
- Child Pornography Sentences: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, 2016–2025 (related comparison)
- Federal Law Has No Crime of Drug Use: How Article 112a Cases Compare (related comparison)
- Drug Distribution and Importation: Federal vs. Court-Martial Sentences, 2016–2025 (related comparison)
- Sexual Abuse of an Adult: Federal Cases vs. Article 120 Courts-Martial (related comparison)
- Theft and Fraud by Dollar Loss: Federal Sentences vs. Article 121 Courts-Martial (related comparison)
- Fewer or More? Child Sexual Abuse Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 120b Conviction in the Army? (court-martial data)
- How Often Are Contested Army Article 120b Cases Acquitted? (court-martial data)
- Pleading Guilty to Article 120b in the Army: What Sentences Followed? (court-martial data)
- How Has Article 120b Changed in Air Force Courts-Martial Since 2016? (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 120b Conviction in the Air Force? (court-martial data)
- Guilty Pleas in Air Force Child Sexual Abuse Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (court-martial data)
- Fewer or More? Child Sexual Abuse Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025 (court-martial data)
- What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Child Sexual Abuse Conviction? (court-martial data)
- Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Child Sexual Abuse Charge: How Contested Cases Ended (court-martial data)
- Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Child Sexual Abuse Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (court-martial data)
- Article 120b (Rape and Sexual Assault of a Child): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 120b UCMJ: Rape and Sexual Assault of a Child (law firm reference page)
- Forum Selection (law firm reference page)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
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.