Pentagon: Reports of Sexual Assaults Up 46 Percent

Photo Credit: gregwest98Reports of sexual assaults in the military increased by an unprecedented 46 percent in the past fiscal year, the Pentagon said Thursday.

It wasn’t possible to know whether the spike represented an increase in assaults, an increase in the number of people reporting them, or both. Defense Department officials portrayed the sharp rise as a sign that people are more confident about coming forward now that improvements are being made to the military’s system for handling assaults.

The military received 3,553 complaints of sexual assault from October 2012 through June, compared with 2,434 reports during the same period the previous year, according to statistics presented Thursday at the start of a two-day public meeting of an independent panel looking into the issue

The report to the Response Systems Panel said an increase in complaints was registered across all service branches — Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

And it noted that more reports of sexual assault were made in the first three quarters of fiscal 2013 than the 3,374 reported during the entire 2012 budget year.

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