Sex assault reports in military have doubled since 2012

WASHINGTON — A new survey shows that one in three victims of sexual assault in the U.S. military now reports it, a record high.

But fear of retaliation and a culture of loyalty to their peers still prevents thousands from doing so, the same survey found.

The U.S. military received 6,172 reports of sexual assault in 2016, almost double the number of service members who reported it in 2012, according to the new Pentagon survey. It estimates there were 14,900 sexual assaults in 2016, the lowest number recorded since the survey was first conducted in 2006. In 2014, the report estimated there were 20,300 sexual assaults, and 26,000 in 2012.

Despite the overall downward trend, reports of sexual violence increased at two of the three national military academies in the 2016 fiscal year. At the United States Military Academy at West Point, reported sexual assaults rose from 17 to 26 last year, and at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis they rose from 25 to 28.

The opposite happened at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, where reported sexual assaults dropped from 49 to 32 in the last academic year.

“Sexual assault in our military and military service academies is a scourge on our nation,” Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said at congressional hearing on sexual violence and harassment in the military on Tuesday. “Both women and men are victimized by sexual assault and harassment at the service academies, creating a toxic culture that follows these students straight into military leadership.”

The military is losing valuable future leaders when young victims are forced out of service academies or leave of their own volition following sexual harassment or assault, Speier said.

While sexual assault occurs on all college campuses, survivors who testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday said that military service academies should be held to a higher standard but instead have a culture in which victims are discouraged from reporting it.

“Their loyalty to their peers, one of the key coping mechanisms many cadets rely on to get through the daily grind they experience as West Point cadets, creates this sense that reporting their assault and ruining the career of the offender is a tough sell,” said West Point superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen.

Annie Kendzior, one of four survivors of sexual assault at military service academies who testified Tuesday, said she agreed that the culture was a big part of the problem.

Kendzior, who reported in 2011 that she had been sexually assaulted by two Naval Academy athletes in 2008, said that even seminars intended to educate female cadets about the issue carried a warning of what would happen if they reported it. In one such class, she told lawmakers, students were told the story of a woman who said she had been raped by a star football player and was found in the end to have lied about it.

“They finished that story with ‘Don’t be that girl.’ That’s what they told us in a sexual assault prevention class,” she said at the hearing.

“The funny thing is ... most cadets believe that almost every single report is a lie. And that’s just the culture,” said Ariana Bullard, another survivor who testified. “Most cadets don’t believe in almost any woman that reports. Everyone jokes around about that.”

The name tags worn on cadets’ uniforms make those who report sexual assault easy targets for retaliation when word gets out, the former students said. Several survivors cited YikYak, a social media app that allows anyone within a five-mile radius to post public, anonymous messages, as being widely used to discredit women who speak out.