US military sexual assault reports soared 50% in 2013, says Pentagon
Reports of sexual assault filed by members of the military have soared by an unprecedented 50%, according to an annual survey by the Pentagon published on Thursday.
It remains unclear whether the new figures signify a jump in the number of assaults or whether they could be the result of more military personnel coming forward to file reports.
The US Department of Defense, which has introduced reforms over the past year, said that they were confident the increase in reporting was down to greater trust and confidence in the military justice system among victims.
The figures show 5,061 reports of sexual assault filed in the fiscal year ending 2013, compared to 3,400 in fiscal year 2012. About 10% of the 2013 reports involved incidents that occurred before the victim joined the military, up from just 4% in 2012.
Since 2006, the number of of sexual assaults filed has increased, but only by an average of 6% per year.
The significant increase in reporting follows high-profile efforts by members of Congress and advocacy groups to highlight military sexual violence and the chronic under-reporting they say stems from a lack of trust in the military's ability to administer justice to perpetrators.
Only 14% of the reports filed last year were men, and one of six fresh initiatives announced on Thursday by Chuck Hagel, the defence secretary, is aimed at encouraging more male victims to come forward.
In the last year, Hagel has issued 22 directives covering a range of reforms, including actions to expand victims' rights, improving legal support in the form of special victims counsel, more commander accountability and stricter penalties for those convicted of sexual assault. The military has also acted to increase awareness of the issue and to encourage victims to come forward.
At a press conference on Thursday, Hagel said that one of the issues that needed addressing was a cultural stigma within the military that victims may be perceived as weak.
Hagel called on the military services to step up efforts to encourage troops to intervene in sexual assault situations and work with military bases and communities to better train bar workers and promote more responsible alcohol sales. According to officials, alcohol was a factor in as many as two-thirds of the cases.
Under the military's definition, a sexual assault can be anything from unwanted sexual contact, such as inappropriate touching or groping, to sodomy and rape.
"There is no indication that this increase in reporting constitutes an increase in crime," said Major General Jeffrey Snow, director of the Pentagon's sexual assault prevention and response office. "We assess that this unprecedented increase is consistent with a growing confidence in the response systems."
However, critics of the military's approach to its sexual assault crisis said it was impossible to draw any conclusions from the figures.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Senate armed services subcommittee on personnel, who has lobbied for commanders to be stripped of their power to make decisions on prosecution of sexual assault, said that since the report did not include an estimate of the total crimes committed, no conclusion could be drawn. She described the report as "troubling" and said it should "send a chill down's people's spines".
"A system where only one out of 10 reported cases proceed to trial for a survivor to have a fair shot at receiving justice is simply not working. Using last year's baseline of an estimated 26,000 total cases of unwanted sexual contact, we have a system where eight out of 10 victims of sexual assault still do not trust the chain of command enough to report the crime committed against them. That is a system screaming for additional reform."
The report showed that 838 cases were preferred to court-martial, compared to 594 last year. Out of the 838 case that went to court martial, only 484 proceeded to trial, and 376 led to convictions.
There have been a number of high-profile cases in recent months where senior figures in the military have been accused of sexual misconduct. The navy last week said it was investigating allegations of misconduct by Captain Gregory McWherter, the former commanding officer of the Blue Angels, the navy's precision aerobatics flight squadron. McWherter is accused of tolerating an inappropriate work environment in the Blue Angels, allowing or in some cases encouraging "lewd speech, inappropriate comments, and sexually explicit humor".
Major General Michael Harrison, former commander of US army forces in Japan was recently disciplined for failing to take appropriate action in response to sexual assault allegations while he was commander.
And last month, the army was forced into a plea deal with a brigadier general being court-martialed on sexual-misconduct charges after a judge found evidence of political interference.
Nancy Parish, president of Protect Our Defenders, said: "The news of DOD's latest report, coupled with the long list of recent bungled courts-martial and trivial punishments of those convicted, highlights the severity of the military's sexual assault epidemic."
She said the "persistent stream of reports "¦ suggests the military is either unwilling or incapable of solving this crisis, and further underscores the need for strong action from our elected leaders, whose failure to support an objective, impartial military justice system for our troops makes them complicit."
In March, the Senate narrowly defeated Gillibrand's bill that would have stripped commanders of their authority to oversee the prosecutions of sexual assault cases and other major crimes. The Pentagon had lobbied heavily against the measure.
This week, Gillibrand said she would try to bring her bill to a vote again this year.
US military sexual assault reports soared 50% in 2013, says Pentagon | World news | theguardian.com