Military sexual assaults drop for first time since 2016

WASHINGTON – Sexual assault among troops declined for the first time in almost a decade, according to data for 2023 released Thursday by the Pentagon.

The number of troops reporting unwanted sexual contact, from groping to rape, dropped from 35,900 in 2021 to 29,000 in 2023, according to the Pentagon’s biannual report on sexual assault in the military.

The survey found that 6.8% of women service members reported unwanted sexual contact in 2023 compared with 8.4% in 2021.

For men, those figures were 1.3% in 2023 and 1.5% in 2021. The military comprises about 80% men and 20% women.

Defense officials attributed the decline to steps taken in 2021 that were recommended by an independent review commission.

The Pentagon had struggled for years to stem the scourge of troops preying sexually on one another. Among the reforms the commission recommended was establishing dedicated prosecutors for sexual assault separate from the military chain of command.

Another initiative created a prevention team targeting bases at the highest risk, such as the Army’s Fort Cavazos in Texas.

The decline reflects years of effort by advocates, elected officials and military leadership, said Don Christensen, the former chief prosecutor for the Air Force. “While we can celebrate the improvements, the numbers are still too high,” he said. “Twenty-nine thousand service members who have been victims of unwanted sexual violence are still far too many.”

Data on prosecutions show that few cases of sexual assault go to military trial, and even fewer result in convictions, Christensen said.

“Accountability is still lacking,” he said.

$1 billion spent in 2024 on sexual assault prevention

The report notes that defense officials are cautiously optimistic that the decline in sexual assaults shows that their efforts are paying off.

“That is 7,000 people who will not have to deal with the scourge of this crime,” said Elizabeth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency.

The Pentagon will spend more than $1 billion on sexual assault prevention programs in 2024, Foster said.

The number of sexual assaults reported by troops has generally increased for more than a decade, a signal that service members trust their superiors to take their complaints seriously. In 2010, there were 2,532 reports of sexual assault compared with 7,266 in 2023. Trust in the military leadership ticked up in 2023.

About 1 in 4 troops reported their sexual assault to military authorities, according to the survey. Foster said the Pentagon has “a lot more work to do to rebuild trust” especially among women.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently held a meeting of the top Pentagon leadership, including his deputy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to stress that sexual assault and harassment affect the military’s readiness to fight.

“The only acceptable number of instances of sexual assault or sexual harassment in the U.S. military is zero,” Austin said in a statement.

“We owe it to all our service members to get this right.”