The National Sexual Violence Resource Center estimates that between 2-10% of all sexual assaults reported nationally are determined to be false, with the generally accepted average hovering around 7%. Many legal advisers and Department of Defense criminal investigation agents would argue the estimate applied to the department is too low.

Using that percentage — and recognizing that in FY20, the DOD investigated 7,816 sexual assault allegations — that means somewhere between 156 to 782 service members were falsely accused last year. Adding context to that number, last year there were 415 court-martial actions completed in sexual assault cases within the DOD. Of those 415 cases, 90 were dismissed and 99 resulted in acquittals.