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Pentagon reports rise in sexual assaults in US military

Saturday, 29 April 2023 7:25 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 29 April 2023 7:25 PM ]

A drill instructor instructs female recruits as they begin the first ever integrated basic training at Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, San Diego in San Diego, California, US, February 9, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)

The number of sexual assaults has risen among US military forces, the Pentagon has reported.

The Pentagon’s latest annual report released this week showed that sexual assaults in the US military had increased by 1 percent last year, CNN reported.

US service members in 2022 reported 7,378 instances of sexual assault, according to the Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military, released on Thursday.

In 2021, there were 7,260 reports of sexual assault in the US military.

The increase was reported in all of the services aside from the Army.

The Navy reported a 9 percent increase and the Marine Corps showed a 3.6 percent rise while the Air Force’s rise was 13 percent.

Military officials say despite Pentagon's efforts and recommendations aimed to stop sexual assault, the number has risen every year since 2010.

Beth Foster, director of the Office of Force Resiliency, told reporters that the ongoing trend of sexual assault isn’t going to change “overnight.”

The military official blamed commanders and service members on the ground for the increase.

Friendly Fire

In the past decades hundreds of thousands of US military personnel have been sexually assaulted in the US military.

“At the end of the day, we can only do so much at the headquarters level,” Foster claimed. “But, you know, really, this is on our commanders, on our [non-commissioned officers], our frontline leaders to make sure that they are addressing this problem. And, you know, the Secretary says … we need to lead on that. And that that is for at every level of the department.”

“We certainly, if we could flip a switch and make this change instantly, we would,” Foster said. “But we know this is going to take some time.”

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Meanwhile, the report released on Thursday looks at the number of sexual assault reports, as opposed to a separate report the Pentagon releases every other year that estimates the total number of service members experiencing sexual assault but not reporting due to certain considerations or lack of faith in the justice system.

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