Why Military Sex Assault Reports are Rising, Even as Army Numbers Fall

Some people who work for the U.S Government said to Big Big News that the number of sexual assaults in the military slightly increased last year. Although the Army had fewer cases, the other three services (Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps) reported a higher amount.

Although the numbers of reports went up by only a small amount compared to the 13% increase reported in 2021, three branches of the U.S. Department of Defense (the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps) all saw more reports than in the year before, according to two U.S. officials.

Last year, the Army reported a 9% decrease in sexual assaults. This was even after there was a big 26% jump in army-involved reports the year before. All of this helped to bring down the sexual assault numbers for the entire military.

People who work at the Pentagon, but don’t want to be named publicly, told us that in the past year (which ended on September 30th) the Air Force had a 13% increase in assaults happening, while there were 9% more assaults reported in the Navy and 4% more cases being reported in the Marine Corps. The report from the Pentagon is likely to appear soon – probably this Thursday.

In total, in the 2022 fiscal year there were 8,942 reports of sexual assaults involving military personnel. That’s a tiny bit more than the 8,866 reported in the previous year.

Lots of people in Congress are really mad at the Pentagon and the different military services because they haven’t done enough to stop sexual assaults or even encourage people to report them. So over the last year, the military services have been trying out lots of new ways to prevent sexual assaults and make it easier for people to talk about them without being scared.

Military leaders believe that when more assaults are reported, it is a good thing. This means more people feel safe to come forward and tell someone they were hurt, and also more bad guys will get in trouble for what they did.

We don’t know if there’s more reports of assault happening now or if people who have been attacked are just speaking up more.

Although the military is making it easier and more secure for service members to speak up, it has not been successful in reducing assault cases – which rose to high levels last year. The Army leaders know that troubles like sexual assault, suicide and other issues can be a reason why fewer people join the army. Every branch of the military has been having a hard time reaching recruit point goals.

Last year, army officials got worried when they saw more and more soldiers joining the force. So, they started creating new programs to help them manage better. By fall, some of these approaches seemed to have worked.

One thing that showed promise was a training program for new soldiers once they’ve arrived at their first duty station. Basically, it trains them on how to handle dangerous situations by letting them “act out” what could happen in case something goes wrong.

The Army is working hard to make sure their unit leaders are getting properly graded. To do this, they pick random people (like peers and others) to give the assessments.

Data from the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army show that more people reported sexual assault in 2021 compared to last year. For example, the Air Force went up from 1,701 reports to 1,928 while the Navy jumped from 1,883 to 2,052. The Marine Corps had an increase as well with 1,201 reports in 2021 going up to 1,244 last year. The Army actually saw fewer reports in that time period – 4,081 in 2021 dropping down to 3,718 last year.

Every year, the Pentagon releases a report with information about the sexual assaults reported by or against members of their military. But since not all cases are reported, the department also does a confidential survey every two years to get an accurate idea of what is happening. The most recent survey was published last year and will not be released again until next year.