U.S. Military sexual assaults spike, Pentagon report finds

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The U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday the estimated number of sexual assaults in the military climbed nearly 38 percent in 2018 compared with a survey two years earlier, data that critics say laid bare broken Pentagon promises of a crackdown.

The Pentagon said there were 6,053 reports of sexual assaults last year which is the highest since the U.S. military began collecting this kind of survey data in 2004.

What does the report say?

Two pioneering women made history as they became the first females to graduate from the Army's elite and grueling 62-day Ranger school, at Fort Benning, Georgia, August 21, 2015. /VCG Photo

The report released on Thursday surveyed the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, and estimated a total of 20,500 cases in 2018.

The total figure is based on reports of attacks as well as an extrapolation of survey data which was gathered through a poll of over 100,000 troops. Researchers say the survey has a 95 percent level of confidence.

While taking into consideration the unreported cases as well, the military survey estimated 20,500 male and female service members experienced some kind of sexual assault last year. The estimated number in 2016 was 14,900. And the odds of a woman in the U.S. military between the ages of 17 and 20 being sexually assaulted were one in eight.

Unwanted sexual contact was characterized in the report as running along with a range of instances from groping to rape.

The report also found the Marine Corps had the highest rate of estimated sexual assaults at nearly 11 percent, up from seven percent in 2016, followed by the Navy, Army and Air Force respectively.

Sixty-two percent of the most severe sexual assaults involved alcohol use by the victim and/or the alleged offender, and more than 85 percent of victims knew their assailant, the report said.

Overall, the rates of sexual assault in the military have trended downward since 2006 when over 34,000 service members reported some type of sexual assault, but the numbers have fluctuated up and down since then.

The sexual assault in U.S. military

Once the first female combat pilot in the U.S. Air Force, the Republican Senator Martha McSally sings the National Anthem at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, November 3, 2018. /VCG Photo

In the U.S., sexual harassment is illegal, considered a form of sexual discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which also covers discrimination based on race, skin color, religion and national origin.

Republican Senator Martha McSally, who was the first female combat pilot in the U.S. Air Force, revealed in March that she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force. She said she did not report it because she blamed herself and did not trust the system.

Approximately one in three service members who indicated they had been a victim of sexual assault reported it to a superior within the military, roughly the same rate as 2016, and military commanders had sufficient evidence to take disciplinary action against two-thirds of service members accused according to the report.

Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and 2020 presidential contender who has been an advocate for overhauling rules for prosecution of sex crimes in the U.S. military, responded on Twitter, calling on Congress to take action where the defense department has "repeatedly failed."

"It's been almost six years since the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said that the Pentagon would try to solve this problem. The status quo isn't working," Gillibrand said.

Any measures to prevent this?

U.S. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan speaks during a meeting at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, April 1, 2019. /VCG Photo

The Pentagon has established a sexual assault accountability task force that was assembled at the request of Arizona Republican Senator Martha McSally in March.

McSally at the time said she would introduce legislation in the next few weeks that would incorporate many of the recommendations made by Pentagon officials highlighting the need for dedicated, trained and experienced counsels, advocates and investigators, and called for military lawyers and investigators to be teamed up from the beginning.

In a letter to senior officials across the Defense Department on Thursday, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters the Pentagon was looking to make sexual harassment a crime in the military, something that would potentially elevate the punishment. And it was expected to issue a directive to the Defense Department making sexual harassment a stand-alone crime under military law.

"We're going to criminalize certain activities in this next year to reflect the seriousness that we're going to take on certain behaviors," Shanahan said.

The Pentagon also announced Thursday it will take additional steps to address the problem including launching a program that will allow service members making reports even greater confidentiality in their reporting as well as enhancing efforts in the recruiting process to assess the character of potential recruits.

(With input from Reuters)