By M. Bilal Kenasari
WASHINGTON
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that the military has made strides in fighting sexual assault within its ranks.
“There have been indications of real progress,” Hagel said, but “we still have a long way to go,” he added while announcing the release of a preliminary report on military sexual assault.
Military members are more willing to report sexual assault cases compared to last year, according to the report.
The number of members reporting attacks and unwanted sexual contact increased from the beginning of the year through September, to nearly 6,000, up from about 5,500 in 2013 and a little more than 3,500 in 2012.
The report estimates that "the percentage of active-duty women who experienced unwanted sexual contact declined from 6.1 percent in 2012 to 4.3 percent in 2014.” For active duty males, there was not a statistically significant change in 2014 at 0.9 percent, compared to 1.2 percent in 2012.
Also, the percentage of women who experienced sexual harassment in the past year declined significantly from 23.2 percent in 2012 to 20.2 percent in 2014.
Not all the numbers are heading south. The 136-page report found that sexual assaults reported by military personnel increased 8 percent in 2014, but there is worry that more than 60 percent of sexual assault victims believe they have been subjected to retaliation for reporting the crime.
"The department is extremely concerned about the persistent high rate of perceived retaliation endorsed by these survey respondents,” the report said while adding that the concealed identities of respondents made it difficult to determine if the perceived retaliation was related to reporting an assault or some other factor.
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