WASHINGTON--The U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday the estimated number of sexual assaults in the military climbed nearly 38 percent in 2018 compared with a survey two years earlier, data that critics say laid bare broken Pentagon promises of a crackdown.
The Pentagon said there were 6,053 reports of sexual assaults last year, according to an anonymous, bi-annual survey. It is the highest since the U.S. military began collecting this kind of survey data in 2004.
Taking into consideration unreported cases as well, the military survey estimated 20,500 male and female service members experienced some kind of sexual assault last year. The estimated number in 2016 was 14,900.
The campaign against sexual assault in the military again gained momentum in March when Republican Senator Martha McSally, the first female combat pilot in the U.S. Air Force, said she had been raped by a superior officer. She said she did not report it because she blamed herself and did not trust the system.
McSally said she would introduce legislation in the next few weeks that would incorporate many of the recommendations made by Pentagon officials highlighting the need for dedicated, trained and experienced counsels, advocates and investigators, and called for military lawyers and investigators to be teamed up from the beginning.
"I believe this is a readiness issue," McSally said after the report's release. "And just like when we have other readiness issues where we need bombs and bullets and training hours, we need to invest more resources into this process to make sure that we're addressing the shortfalls that we've seen throughout the different bases I visited and talking to others."
The odds of a woman in the U.S. military between the ages of 17 and 20 being sexually assaulted were one in eight, the report said.
