DoD: Sexual assault reports increased in 2008

Reports of sexual assaults involving military victims or perpetrators are on the rise — more than 8 percent over the previous fiscal year — and increased more than three times as much in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon’s new report to Congress also says the number of cases that were sent to court-martial rose 8 percent last fiscal year — although one congressional critic calculates a far lower figure.

But overall, the Pentagon says that more sexual assault reports are just what it wants to see.

That’s because sexual assault is underreported generally due to the fear and stigma associated with the crimes, said Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault and Prevention Office, or SAPRO. In releasing the department’s fiscal year 2008 report on sexual assault in the ranks, she told Pentagon reporters Tuesday that the increase in reports “means the department’s policy of encouraging victims to come forward is making a difference.”

“We’re getting the victims in to get care,” Whitley said.

A congressional critic took a different tack.

“The Pentagon’s alarming statistics prove that sexual assault in the military not only persists, but has gotten worse,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., following the report’s release. “Enough is enough. How many more of our brave women and men in uniform must experience sexual assault before we truly address this issue?”

A total of 2,908 reports of sexual assaults, ranging from wrongful sexual contact to rape and involving the military in some manner, were reported in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008. That’s an increase of 8.18 percent from the previous fiscal year. Service representatives at the press conference reported individual totals of 1,584 in the Army, 607 in the Air Force, 489 in the Navy and 244 in the Marine Corps.

Those add up to 2,924; Whitley said the department is working to reconcile the figures.

A total of 643 of the 2,908 total reports were “restricted,” a military-unique option instituted in 2005 that allows uniformed victims to retain confidentiality by keeping commanders and law enforcement out of the loop. That total is up from 603 the previous year, making for an increase of 6.63 percent.

Unrestricted reports rose 8.63 percent, from 2,085 to 2,265, according to the report. Of those, service members were the victim in 1,594 reports; the remaining 671 were non-service victims.

The crime of rape was the leading type of offense, accounting for 924 of the 2,265 unrestricted reports. Another 498 cases involved aggravated sexual assault. Together, they made up 63 percent of all reports, the Pentagon said.

In the greater Middle East and Afghanistan, where officials say arduous conditions in combat zones make sexual assault response and data collection “very difficult,” the Pentagon recorded 251 total reports of sexual assault. Officials said that total represents a 17 percent increase over the previous fiscal year — a rate of increase more than double the overall figure.

But the incidence of sexual assaults in Iraq and Afghanistan alone rose 26 percent over the previous fiscal year, with 163 reported, Whitley said.

A senior SAPRO policy advisor, Teresa Scalco, said that the increase seemed so much larger than the overall Defense Department increase because the overall number of assaults in Iraq and Afghanistan was so much smaller, making percentage changes seem disproportionately large. The previous fiscal year total for DoD in the two countries was 131, she said.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who has described the military sexual assault rate as an “epidemic,” gave the new report a tepid response Tuesday.

“While the report shows modest improvement, we’re far from ‘Mission Accomplished’,” Harman said. “Military women are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, she said, “are engaged, but now DoD needs to ‘walk the walk.’ This means better training, vigorous prosecution, and retooling a military culture that for too long has let boys be boys.”

Last year, Harman said the Pentagon had shown “an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks.” Harman said that according to the Pentagon’s own statistics, only 8 percent of those investigated for sexual assault in 2007 were referred to court-martial and that in nearly half of the cases, the chain of command took no action.

Pentagon officials Tuesday said that 38 percent of all 2,763 “command actions” in fiscal year 2008 — some of which included reports made prior to that year, and which does not include all incidents from fiscal year 2008 — were referred to court-martial.

But that’s 38 percent, or 317, of the 832 cases that weren’t dropped because the case was referred to a civilian court or foreign authority; the subject was unidentifiable, or the evidence was unsubstantiated or insufficient. The Pentagon’s figure for the previous fiscal year was 30 percent.

Officials could not say how many of those courts-martial resulted in convictions. Robert Reed of the Pentagon General Counsel’s office said that SAPRO does not have the figures because it does not track them.

By way of comparison, in the state of California — to which the Defense Department “is often compared,” according to the report — about 28 percent of reported rapes alone are prosecuted. Including other categories of sexual assault, as the Pentagon does, the California rates would likely be even lower, the report states.

Related reading:

Reports for the Pentagon and each of the services are at www.sapr.mil/HomePage.aspx?Topic=ResourcesReports&PageName=ReportLinks.htm.