Thenumber of sexual assaults reported at the military service academies in the past academic year jumped 64 percent compared with the previous year, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday. During the 2009-2010 school year, a total of 41 incidents of sexual violence reported by cadets and midshipmen from the three academies, compared with 25 the previous year. “The Department of Defense has a no-tolerance policy toward sexual assault,” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in a statement. “This type of act not only does unconscionable harm to the victim, it destabilizes the workplace and threatens national security.”
At the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, there were 11 reports of sexual assault involving midshipmen, up from eight the previous year.
Pentagon officials said the results might not indicate an increase in instances of attacks occurring, but it could be a result of students being better trained and feeling more confident that their complaints will be handled correctly.
Still, the Defense Department estimates fewer than 10 percent of assaults at the academies are actually reported.
Some of the common reasons cited by cadets and midshipmen for not reporting the incidents included dealing with the incident themselves, fear of gossip, feeling the incident was not important enough to report and feeling uncomfortable making a complaint.
Investigations of 19 cases have been completed, and it is the intent of the Defense Department to hold subjects accountable, the report said.
Commanders found enough evidence to take action against 12 subjects, including court-martial charges against two people, nonjudicial punishments against three, and cadet disciplinary system actions against seven students.
A survey showed that 13 percent of women and 2 percent of men indicated experiencing unwanted sexual contact.
The department’s annual report on sexual harassment and violence at the Naval Academy, U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy was mandated in 2007.
