Fewer or More? Child Endangerment Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025

Trends › By Offense › Article 119b › Navy-Marine Corps

Based on 47 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

A Rare Charge With More Cases in Recent Years

From January 2017 through November 2025, 47 courts-martial charged Article 119b, the child endangerment article. That is 1% of the 3,740 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial tried in those years.

The yearly count was below 10 every year: 7 in 2017, 5 in 2018, 3 in 2019, 4 in 2020, 3 in 2021, 5 in 2022, 2 in 2023, 9 in 2024, and 9 in 2025.

As a share of convictions with listed offenses, Article 119b was part of 14 of 1,243 convictions in 2017–2019 (1%). It was part of 18 of 940 in 2023–2025 (2%), about the same share. The yearly share was highest in 2025, at 3%. With counts this small, a few cases can change a year's figure noticeably.

Usually Charged With Other Offenses

Article 119b was the only charge in 16 of the 47 cases. The other cases included other articles, most often Article 128 (assault) in 14 cases and Article 128b (domestic violence) in 12. Article 131b (obstruction) appeared in 7, and Article 120b (child sexual abuse) and Article 120 (sexual assault) in 5 each.

A sentence covers every charge in a case. The sentence figures below therefore include these other charges.

Few Full Acquittals

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Only 31 of the 47 records list the plea. Of those, 19 were guilty pleas and 12 were contested. That 39% contested share compares with 32% across the Navy and Marine Corps.

Full acquittals ended 17% of the 12 contested cases that reached a verdict. That was lower than the 31% for the service. Another 4 ended in a partial acquittal: a not-guilty finding on at least one charge or specification and a guilty finding on another.

Sentences Were Somewhat Longer

Confinement was part of 80% of the 44 convictions. Half of those terms were 8 months or less, compared with a 6-month median across the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of sentences were 2.3 years or longer.

Confinement of more than one year was adjudged in 14 of 44 convictions (32%), more often than the 25% for the service. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Sentences Differed by Court Level

The cases include 22 general and 25 special courts-martial. The general court-martial share of 47% compares with 43% across the Navy and Marine Corps.

At general courts-martial, the median confinement was 2.2 years and the contested share was 50%. At special courts-martial, the median was 3 months and the contested share was 27%. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

Punitive Discharges

Of 41 convicted enlisted members, 22 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (54%). That was lower than the 62% across Navy and Marine Corps cases. Of those, 9 were dishonorable.

The group includes 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, and none was sentenced to dismissal, the officer counterpart to a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Who Was Charged?

By rank, the accused were 21 junior enlisted members, 22 NCOs, and 3 officers. The accused here were more senior than in the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole. NCOs were slightly more numerous than junior enlisted members. The records give only trial dates, not offense dates.

Where the Cases Were Tried

Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay (6), Camp Pendleton, California (6), Mayport, Florida (5), Quantico, Virginia (5), and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (4) tried the most cases. Together they account for 55% of the total. Larger installations try more cases of all kinds, so these counts do not show a problem at any one base.

Law Changes and Missing Information

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months, and introduced written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. For offenses after December 27, 2023, judges sentence under new parameters. The records do not include offense dates, so trials from 2024 on include both old-rule and new-rule cases.

Navy and Marine Corps records often omit the plea, so plea counts use only the records that list it. The records also do not include the evidence, the plea terms, or anything handled outside a court-martial.

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.