News / Military

Pentagon releases data on sex assault reports for all military installations

Friday, 17 November 2017 10:34 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 17 November 2017 11:02 PM ]

US soldiers cheer entertainment at a base in Texas. (File photo)

The Pentagon has released sexual assault data for all its installations in all four branches of the military in both the US and abroad.

The report, which was published on Friday in response to a large number of Freedom of Information Act requests, details sexual assaults data for fiscal years 2013 through 2016.

Overall, there were 6,153 reports of sexual attacks in the military in Fiscal Year 2016 up from 5,676 the year before, according to the Defense Department.

Although reports of sexual assaults in combat zones have plummeted since 2013, they increased marginally last year, the data showed.

For the 2016 fiscal year, 32 percent of service members, who were sexually assaulted now report it, up from 25 percent in fiscal years 2014 and 2015, the Pentagon stated.

The number of reports, however, does not necessarily show that the incident happened at any particular installation, but rather indicates the place where the service member is getting assistance with their sexual assault reports.

The incident could have happened "while on deployment, while away on leave, or even prior to entering the military," the Pentagon said.

“One of the features of the department’s reporting program is that service members can report allegations of sexual assault at any time and at any place,” Nate Galbreath, the deputy director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said in a statement.

“This kind of flexibility allows the department to better meet the department’s goals to increase reporting of sexual assault and decrease the occurrence of the crime through prevention.”

The report comes out at the time when the issue of sexual assault has become a national conversation. Many powerful men from all walks of life, including politics, entertainment, and journalism, have been accused of sexual assaults.

Women in the US have recently been coming forward to share encounters of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.

Since last month, over 50 women have made sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. The scandal has triggered a social media campaign, as well as a wave of similar allegations against powerful men around the world, called the "Weinstein effect."

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