The Rand Corp. published a study on Friday that shows which U.S. military installations have the highest number of sexual assaults, based on pressure to release the report from senators.
The data is already four years old but shows that six large bases — nearly all Army installations — were estimated by Rand to each have had more than 500 sex assaults among both men and women during fiscal 2014.
Fort Hood in Texas, which is among the largest U.S. bases, had 885 assaults that year, the highest number of any military facility. Fort Bragg in North Carolina was estimated to have had 836.
[Previous coverage: Pentagon says reports of sexual assault up 10 percent in the military]
The Marine Corps was the only other service that had a facility with estimated annual sex assaults more than 500. Rand found Camp Lejeune, N.C., had 514 assaults.
Release of the politically charged data had been delayed by the Pentagon as it questioned the methodology, but Senate Armed Services Committee members Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., pushed for it to be made public, according to USA Today.
“This deeply troubling report confirms what thousands of military sexual assault survivors already knew: that military sexual assault is still pervasive, and the Pentagon isn’t doing nearly enough to stop it,” Gillibrand said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The Pentagon should have released this report much sooner, but now that they have finally made this important analysis public, they have an obligation to take these findings seriously and do everything they can to end sexual assault in our military.”
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., the committee chairman, said he expects to hear from the Pentagon about how the data will help improve sex assault prevention, response and enforcement.
“One instance of sexual assault is too many and I expect the Department [of Defense] to continue its vigilant efforts to minimize risk, support victims and hold perpetrators of sexual assault accountable,” Inhofe said in a statement Friday.
The Service Women’s Action Network, an advocacy group, said it was pleased by the decision to release the data and it should influence troops’ decision on where to be stationed with their families.
“SWAN hopes that base commanders at all installations, but especially the highest risk installations, will examine the data and realize that any sexual assault reported at their base represents fratricide within their ranks and a failure in their duty to protect those who serve under them,” Ellen Haring, acting SWAN CEO and a retired colonel, said in a statement.
