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By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
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| WASHINGTON, March 14, 2008 - There were about the same number of sexual
assaults reported across the military this past year as there were the year
before, according to Defense Department report released today.
Kaye Whitley, director of the Defense
Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, answers a question
during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., March 14, 2008.
Defense Dept. photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adam M. Stump
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
| | Officials
released today 2007 report on sexual assault along with the 2006 gender
relations survey. Both are congressionally mandated reports
Because of
reporting changes, this year's data cannot be directly compared to last year's.
In this report the DoD changed its reporting window from calendar year to fiscal
year. As a result, one quarter's worth of data from calendar year 2006 is also
recorded in this report.
Officials said they made the change in
reporting to align with changes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice
definitions for sexual assault crimes.
Still, officials said it appears
the number of reports remain "relatively constant" with last year's, according
to the report.
For fiscal year 2007 there were 2,688 reports of sexual
assault among the services. Of those, just over 2,000 were unrestricted reports,
meaning it is sent to the command for investigation. There were 705 restricted,
or confidential, reports of sexual assault. Those allow the victim to receive
medical care and other services without an investigation being initiated.
The restricted option is a change to the military reporting system, and
one that officials said affords many victims access to care who would not have
reported the crime otherwise.
"We felt that the investigation and the
notification of the command may possibly be a barrier to report. So we removed
that," said Kaye Whitley, director of the the Defense Department's Sexual
Assault Prevention and Response Office.
The command is notified only
that an assault was reported. The victim can later change the report type. In
this reporting period, 102 switched their report from restricted to
unrestricted.
"When I see that number [of restricted reports] I truly
believe that is 705 victims that would not have come forward and would not have
gotten the help and assistance they needed," Whitley said.
Nearly 70
percent of the restricted reports were for rape.
According to the
report, just more than 1,500 of those reports investigated involved
servicemembers as victims. About 60 percent were reports of rape.
The
services finished about 2,000 investigations in fiscal year 2007. About 1,300 of
those were reported in the fiscal year. The rest were carried over from the
previous year.
Of the investigations finished, commanders were able to
take action against about half of those accused of the crimes. There were 181
courts martial, 201 non-judicial punishments and 218 administrative actions and
discharges. Of those reports that the commanders could not take action against,
more than three-quarters were found unsubstantiated or unfounded, lacked
sufficient evidence or the victim recanted.
There were 174 reports of
sexual assault in U.S. Central Command. One hundred and five were made in Iraq
and 43 in Afghanistan. The others were at other sites within the command.
The term sexual assault for the purposes of DoD reporting includes a
wide variety of offenses ranging from rape to indecent assault and attempts at
those crimes. The DoD is required to report to Congress annually the number of
sexual assaults in the military. | |
Related Sites:
DoD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response
Office |
