Inconsistent reporting of sex assaults to federal agencies prevents people from knowing the actual rate of these crimes in their neighborhoods, as well as federal officials from determining the number of assaults at military service academies, officials said.
“The way federal government has accounted for violence against women has been a source of dismay among people who work in this field,” said Lynn Schafran, vice president of women?s rights group Legal Momentum, and a sexual assault expert that has worked with the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
A federal report showed inconsistencies in how the military service academies report and catalog sexual assaults, noting that sex crimes may be going unreported.
The same could be said of how the FBI compiles sexual assault data from police agencies nationwide in its annual Uniform Crime Report, the nation?s database of major crime activity, officials said.
The FBI has a limited definition of rape ? forceful male penetration of a female ? unlike many local agencies that include male rape, sodomy and indecent sexual assault, officials said.
Similarly, West Point in New York and the U.S. Air Force Academy have a less broad approach to reporting sexual assault cases than the U.S. Naval Academy. For example, the Naval Academy reports alleged sexual assault cases to the Department of Defense, while West Point and the Air Force Academy do not.
As a result, the civilian and military numbers can be misleading, officials said.
“It doesn?t properly reflect the prevalence of sex crimes in communities … and you can?t get a sense of how safe a city is,” said Carol Tracy of the Philadephia-based Women?s Law Project.
The federal report on academies said lawmakers are not getting an accurate view on how well prevention programs are working because of the inconsistencies.
“The public?s expectation is that there would be uniform reporting [at academies]. … It?s a self-contained community where a proper system could be effectively implemented,” Schafran said.
The Department of Defense did not respond for comment on pending legislation.
Annapolis academy officials brought the issue to the attention of Maryland lawmakers at a March meeting, as they said their reporting methods account for having the highest number of reported sexual assaults.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., sponsored legislation that passed the House of Representatives requiring all academies to conform to one reporting standard and create a database to better track and assess sexual assaults at academies.
“We need to compare apples to apples,” he said.
