> ## 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. # How Navy-Marine Corps Domestic Violence Cases Ended in 2023 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-128b-2023/ - Published: 2026-10-28T08:17:28.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T08:11:40.000Z - Description: Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial charged Article 128b (domestic violence) in 30 cases in 2023, and all 30 ended with a conviction on at least one charge. Most accused pleaded guilty. 27% of cases were contested, compared with 32% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 128b, Navy-Marine Corps [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 128b](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-128b-courts-martial/) › Navy-Marine Corps, 2023 **Short answer:** Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial charged Article 128b (domestic violence) in 30 cases in 2023, and all 30 ended with a conviction on at least one charge. Most accused pleaded guilty. 27% of cases were contested, compared with 32% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as for all Navy and Marine Corps cases. Based on 30 cases · 2023 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Every Case Ended in a Conviction Each of the 30 cases tried in 2023 ended in a conviction on at least one charge. Of those, 24 sentences included confinement (80%), and 6 had none. Most cases were guilty pleas. Of the 30 accused, 22 pleaded guilty and 8 contested at least one charge. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to one or more charges, through a not-guilty plea or a mixed plea. The 27% contested share was lower than the 32% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2023. ## Most Confinement Was a Year or Less The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the 6-month median for all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2023\. The most common range was under 6 months: 11 convictions (37%). Next was 6 months to 1 year: 9 convictions (30%), compared with 23% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases. Terms longer than one year were less common than for all Navy and Marine Corps cases: 4 of 30 convictions (13%), compared with 23%. Of those, 3 were between 1 and 5 years and 1 was 5 years or more. All of these are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge in the case. | Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2023 | | ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | No confinement | 6 | 20% | 21% | | Under 6 months | 11 | 37% | 33% | | 6 months to 1 year | 9 | 30% | 23% | | More than 1 year, under 5 years | 3 | 10% | 19% | | 5 years or more | 1 | 3% | 4% | ## Special Courts-Martial Heard Most Cases Only 9 of the 30 cases were general courts-martial (30%), lower than the 46% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2023\. The other 21 were special courts-martial. The court level sets the maximum sentence. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable one. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, and only it can adjudge more than one year of confinement. ## Most Discharges Were Bad-Conduct Discharges Of 29 convicted enlisted members, 19 received a punitive discharge: 16 bad-conduct discharges and 3 dishonorable discharges. For all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2023, 63% of convicted enlisted members received one. The records include 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, who was not dismissed. Dismissal is the officer counterpart to a punitive discharge. A sentence with no punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. These records do not cover separations. ## Often the Only Charge Article 128b was the only charge in 14 of 30 cases. In the rest, the most common other charges were Article 92 (orders violation), in 5 cases, and Article 128 (assault), in 4\. Article 90 (disobeying an officer), Article 119b (child endangerment), and Article 120 (sexual assault) each appeared in 2. When other charges are present, the adjudged sentence covers all of them together. A sentence in a case with several articles does not measure the domestic violence charge alone. ## Rank of the Accused By rank, the accused included 18 junior enlisted members, 11 NCOs, and 1 officer. This group is more senior than the accused in all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2023. NCOs are the mid-career and senior enlisted ranks (E-5 to E-9). The records show rank at the time of trial, not total years of service. ## Cases by Installation No installation had more than 4 cases. Quantico, Virginia and Camp Pendleton, California had 4 cases each. MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Florida, and Okinawa, Japan had 3 each. Those 5 installations together account for 57% of the 30 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a higher count at one location does not by itself show a problem with this offense there. ## A Newer Article, a Covered Offense Article 128b exists only for offenses on or after January 1, 2019\. Conduct before that date was charged under other articles, so this article has a shorter history than most in the records. Domestic violence under Article 128b is also a covered offense, one of the categories for which special trial counsel, rather than commanders, decide whether to prosecute. The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so they cannot show which rules applied to any individual case. ## What These Records Do Not Show The data covers only courts-martial. It does not describe the evidence or plea terms. It leaves out domestic violence allegations handled through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no formal action. For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see [Article 128b on the law firm's website](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-128b-domestic-violence/?ref=bodiesburied.com). Dates and sources for the law changes: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial with a trial date in 2023 that charged Article 128b (30 cases), compared with all Navy and Marine Corps cases that year and with 2022. 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 128b (Domestic Violence, Numbered Since 2019): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-128b-courts-martial/) (hub) - [By Year](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-year/) (hub) - [Domestic Violence at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2024: The Year in Numbers](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-128b-2024/) (previous / next) - [How Has Article 128b Changed in Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial Since 2017?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-128b-trend-2017-2025/) (the full trend) - [Navy-Marine Corps Article 128b Cases in 2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-128b-2025/) - [Army Article 128b Cases in 2022](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-128b-2022/) - [Domestic Violence at Air Force Courts-Martial, 2024: The Year in Numbers](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-128b-2024/) - [Domestic Violence at Air Force Courts-Martial, 2025: The Year in Numbers](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-128b-2025/) - [Article 128b Sentences in the Navy-Marine Corps: Confinement and Discharges, 2017–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-128b-sent-2017-2025/) - [Article 128b explained on the law firm's website](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-128b-domestic-violence/?ref=bodiesburied.com) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/) (members) Next: [Domestic Violence at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2024: The Year in Numbers](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-128b-2024/) → **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.