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New York Times
November 7, 2013
Reports of sexual assault in the military increased sharply during the last fiscal year, new Pentagon figures showed Wednesday, just weeks before a defense bill with provisions to tackle the problem is expected to reach the Senate floor.
There were 3,553 sexual assault complaints reported to the Defense Department in the first three quarters of the fiscal year, from October 2012 through June, a nearly 50 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. Defense Department officials said the numbers had continued to rise.
The numbers included sexual assaults by civilians on service members and by service members on civilians. Sexual assault was defined in the report as rape, sodomy and other unwanted sexual contact, including touching of private body parts. It did not include sexual harassment, which is handled by another office in the military.
Military officials cast the increase of reported complaints in positive terms and said it showed an increased willingness among victims of assault to come forward. But the numbers are also the latest in a series of developments underscoring the problem of sexual assault in the military, which has vexed Pentagon officials and drawn fire from Congress and the White House.
“More reports mean more victims are getting the necessary health care,” said Maj. Gen. Gary S. Patton, the director of the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. “More reports means a bridge to more cases being investigated by law enforcement and more offenders being held accountable.”
Each year the department reports the number of assault claims, which lag behind a separate survey on sexual assault taken every other year among 1.4 million active-duty service members. Last summer that survey found that about 26,000 men and women in the military were sexually assaulted in 2011, up from 19,000 in 2010.
The release of the new data comes at a time when Congress is considering changes to the military justice system that would give sexual assault victims more resources and possibly reduce the power of military commanders to reverse the convictions of offenders.
On Thursday and Friday a congressional panel will hold public hearings designed to assess the progress of the military in reducing the problem of sexual assault. So far the Pentagon is offering military commanders more education on preventing such assaults, expanding an Air Force program designed to provide legal counsel directly to victims and increasing the accountability for leaders across the chain of command.
In a twist, the Pentagon found that a substantial number of the reported cases of sexual assault — something less than 10 percent — occurred before the victim entered the military.
“Folks have heard about the services and programs that we have for victims, and they are walking in the door to get those services,” General Patton said. “This is a strong indicator that people have heard our message and believe we are going to take care of them.”
The number of cases of sexual assault that occurred before a victim joined the military were included in the 3,553 complaints.
