The rates of sexual assaults in the military are going up, according to a report presented in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, while rates of prosecution and conviction are going down. Lawmakers had gathered to consider the nomination of Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville as the next Army chief of staff. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., came armed with numbers for her turn to ask a question, minutes after receiving the Defense Department’s 2018 sexual assault report. “So you’re going in the wrong direction,” she said. “This is something that you must take responsibility for. Because it’s an issue of climate.” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville presents the Silver Star on April 16 to Sgt. Armando Yanez during a ceremony at the Army Aviation Association of America Summit 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. McConville has been nominated as the next Army chief of staff. (Sgt. Steven Lopez/Army) Experts have drawn strong conclusions between the health of a command climate and the incidence of sexual harassment, for example, with the likelihood that a sexual assault will occur. The numbers say one in five women serving in an unhealthy command climate will be assaulted, Gillibrand said, and that 24 percent of women serving in the Army report toxicity in their chains of command. For men, it’s 6 percent. And the survivors of assault are mostly concentrated at E-3 level. “So from your perspective, things might be perfect," she said. “It is lower down in the chain of command.” Worse, she added, anecdotal feedback shows that survivors lack faith that their chains of command will competently investigate their allegations. × Fear of missing out? Sign up for the Army Times Daily News Roundup to receive the top Army stories every afternoon. Thanks for signing up. By giving us your email, you are opting in to the Army Times Daily News Roundup. "What angers me the most, General, is that for the last 25 years, every secretary of defense has told this body, told the American public, ‘We have zero tolerance for sexual assault,' " she said. Officials often assert that the increase in sexual assault reporting is a good sign, because it means more survivors are feeling confident to come forward. Recent statistics on the number of cases where charges are filed, or where a conviction is secured, suggest that the spike in reports is not resulting in a spike in consequences. "I am tired of the statement I get over and over from the chain of command: ‘We got this, Ma’am. We got this,’ " Gillibrand said. “You don’t have it. You’re failing us. The trajectories of every measurable are going in the wrong direction.” Gillibrand finished her statement by asking McConville whether she has his commitment to tackle the issue. “Yes, Senator,” he responded, before the hearing moved on. Other than the exchange with Gillbrand, senators heaped praise on McConville, both for his service record and for his family ― his wife, a former Army captain, and his three currently serving children, as well as his staff sergeant son-in-law. Defense Department to make sexual harassment a crime The move comes amid reports of a spike in sexual assaults in the ranks in recent years. “Who can vote against a guy that has – a distinguished general that has two sons and a daughter, all captains, serving in the United States Army? I’d say no one,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said in his opening remarks. McConville invoked his children at one point, during questioning from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on the Army’s recruiting woes. “I actually have millennials, and I think we need to manage their talents,” he said, adding that they want to feel like they’re making a difference. “They don’t see themselves as interchangeable parts in an industrial age system.” And contrary to his example, he added, the Army needs to turn its focus to recruiting outside of its own. “We need to expose young men and women to the military," he said. “Seventy-nine percent of the recruits that come into the Army have a military family member. We do not want to become a family business. We do not want to become isolated from the American public.” McConville, a career aviator who most recently served as the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel, has been a key figure in getting Army Futures Command off the ground, and he told senators he would continue to be hands-on in that modernization effort. If confirmed, he will succeed current Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who has been unofficially tapped to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Let me say what a dilemma this is, to consider voting for somebody who’s an Irish guy from New England, who went to West Point, and is a Red Sox fan,” ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said. “So you know the excruciating difficulty it’ll be for me to vote.”<doc-sep>WASHINGTON – Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan called for sweeping changes in the way the military handles sexual assaults and harassment following a reported 38% increase in assaults from 2016 to 2018. That spike in crime within the ranks comes after years of focused effort and resources to eradicate it. The report surveyed Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel in 2018. Based on the survey, there were an estimated 20,500 instances of unwanted sexual contact – an increase over the 14,900 estimated in the last biennial survey in 2016.Unwanted sexual contact ranges from groping to rape. Enlisted female troops ages 17 to 24 were at the highest risk of being assaulted, said Nathan Galbreath, deputy director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. The Pentagon will target troops in that age range for prevention efforts, he said. "We're very concerned about that," Galbreath said. More than 85% of victims knew their assailant. Alcohol was involved in 62% of the total assaults. Shanahan said in a statement Thursday he had reviewed the latest data and “it is clear that sexual assault and sexual harassment are persistent challenges.” “To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other. This is unacceptable. We cannot shrink from facing the challenge head on,” he said in the statement. Shanahan said ways to address the problem include: seeking a stand-alone military crime of sexual harassment, developing new tools to measure the problem, launching a program to catch serial offenders, improving assessments of the character of military applicants, training for junior officers and junior enlisted leaders and focusing on prevention. The latest report on sexual assaults requires Congress to intervene, said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Armed Services Committee's personnel panel. "The department must accept that current programs are simply not working," Speier said. "Congress must lead the way in forcing the department to take more aggressive approaches to fighting this scourge.” The Pentagon is set to release the recommendations of a task force formed at the urging of Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., to deal with sexual assaults in the military. McSally, a retired Air Force officer and fighter pilot, revealed during an Armed Services Committee meeting in March that she had been raped by a superior officer. “The status quo is not working," New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement. "It's time for Congress to step up and bring accountability where the Department of Defense has repeatedly failed. The evidence is clear – we need to pass the Military Justice Improvement Act so that trained military prosecutors can handle these cases moving forward and give survivors confidence in the system.” Based on the survey for 2018: Sexual assault rate for women was at the highest level, 6%, since 2006. The rate ranged from 4% in the Air Force to 11% in the Marine Corps. The odds of a woman experiencing a sexual assault were highest for the youngest women – from 17 to 20 years old. Those odds were 1 in 8. In 96% of the cases the alleged offender was a man. The offender most often was one person (64%), a military member (89%) and a friend or acquaintance (62%). Nearly 1 in 4 of all women experienced an “unhealthy climate” because of sexual harassment, which was up in the survey. About 16% of all women faced an "unhealthy climate" because of gender discrimination, also up. "The results are disturbing and a clear indicator the Marine Corps must reexamine its sexual assault prevention efforts," the Marine Corps said in a statement. "Our Marines have a fundamental right to live and work in an environment free from sexual assault and harassment. The Marine Corps is committed to purging these criminal behaviors from our ranks, taking care of victims, and holding offenders accountable." According to estimates in 2018, 6% of women in the military endured some form of sexual assault, and almost 1% of men were victimized. The Pentagon extrapolated the rate based on the results of the survey, which had a sample size of more than 100,000, with a 95% confidence level. For women, assaults involving groping and crimes involving penetration both increased, Galbreath said. The type of assaults for men stayed relatively stable. The rate of reporting sexual assault to authorities declined, a trend that might point to less confidence among troops. Guantanamo Bay:Commander of Guantanamo Bay military prison fired for 'loss of confidence in his ability to command' Defense Department:Acting Defense Secretary Shanahan cleared of ethics violations related to Lockheed-Boeing discussions "We know these are consistent problems, and the department is doing everything it can to address these issues across the military," said Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Sexual assaults in the military have trended down since 2006, when 34,000 troops reported some type of sexual assault. Concerns rose anew in 2013 when the Pentagon released a report that estimated the number of sexual assaults increased 35% from 2010 to 2012, to 26,000 victims. The last survey of troops, in 2016, found that number had dropped to about 14,900. Galbreath called the increase in 2018 a "tripwire" that should prompt the Pentagon to act. In 2013, Congress hauled the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Capitol Hill and demanded answers. Top uniformed and civilian officials vowed a "zero tolerance" policy on sexual assault. Last month, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford repeated that goal in a memo to all troops and civilians employed by the military. "Zero tolerance is the only acceptable metric," he said. ISIS-K:ISIS offshoot in Afghanistan willing, able to strike US, says intelligence official Army:Army strips star from Robbie Asher, ex-general of Oklahoma National Guard, over relationship The rate of reporting sexual assault, an indicator of victims' confidence in the system to care for them and punish the crime, dropped in 2018 to 30% from 32% in 2016. In 2006, only 7% reported. The surge in estimated assaults in 2013 prompted Congress to intervene, legislating changes in how the military prosecutes sex crimes and cares for victims.<doc-sep>(CNN) — Sexual assaults across the US military increased by a rate of nearly 38% in 2018, according to a report released by the Pentagon on Thursday. The report which surveyed both men and women from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines estimated that 20,500 members of those services experienced “unwanted sexual contact” in 2018, a significant increase from 14,900 when the military last conducted a similar survey in 2016. Unwanted sexual contact was characterized in the report as running along a range of instances from groping to rape. In a letter to senior officials across the Defense Department on Thursday, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced additional steps the Pentagon would take to try and actively reduce and attempt eliminate what has been a major issue for years. “To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other. This is unacceptable,” Shanahan wrote in the letter. “We cannot shrink from facing the challenge head on. We must, and will, do better.” “Collectively, we must do everything we can to eliminate sexual harassment and assault in the military,” Shanahan wrote “In doing so, we must provide the highest-quality response to service members and hold offenders appropriately accountable.” According to the report, sexual assault rates for women in the active duty force increased significantly, with women between the ages of 17 to 24 being at the highest risk of sexual assault. The rates for men in the active duty force remained steady from the previous report in 2016. The report also found the Marine Corps had the highest rate of estimated sexual assaults at nearly 11%, up from 7% in 2016, followed by the Navy, Army and Air Force respectively. Those services also had increases in their estimated rates of assaults. “I have read the report regarding sexual assault statistics for 2018 and findings are unacceptable. Marines know that sexual assault is a crime,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said in a tweet Thursday. “Marines also know that alcohol abuse is a contributing factor to a significant number of these incidents and other aberrant behaviors. We must have frank and candid conversations about the implications of this report to us as Marines, our units, and our Corps. To be clear, we must treat each other with dignity and respect, and hold each other accountable for not doing so.” 62% of the most serious sexual assaults involved alcohol use by the victim and/or the alleged offender, and the vast majority of victims knew their assailant, the report said. Approximately one in three service members who indicated they had been a victim of sexual assault reported it to a superior within the military, roughly the same rate as 2016, and military commanders had sufficient evidence to take disciplinary action against two-thirds of service members accused according to the report. The Pentagon has established a sexual assault accountability task force that was assembled at the request of Arizona Republican Sen. Martha McSally in March. In testimony before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Shanahan said he was going to “criminalize” sexual harrassment in the military and was expected to issue a directive to the Defense Department making sexual harassment a stand-alone crime under military law, according to a US defense official. “We’re going to criminalize certain activities in this next year to reflect the seriousness that we’re going to take on certain behaviors,” Shanahan said. Overall, the rates of sexual assault in the military have trended downward since 2006 when over 34,000 service members reported some type of sexual assault, but the numbers have fluctuated up and down since then. The Pentagon announced Thursday it will take additional steps to address the problem including launching a program that will allow service members making reports even greater confidentiality in their reporting as well as enhancing efforts in the recruiting process to assess the character of potential recruits. CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed to this report.<doc-sep>The US military is reporting a disturbing spike in the number of active-duty service members who said they’d experienced sexual assault last year, raising questions once again about the military’s handling of misconduct. The Pentagon estimates that about 20,500 service members across the military branches — about 13,000 women and 7,500 men — were sexually assaulted in the 2018 fiscal year, based on data from an anonymous survey that’s compiled by the Department of Defense every two years. That’s a four-year high — and an alarming jump from 2016, in which 14,900 service members said they had been sexually assaulted. The increase mostly came from female active duty members. The report found that women ages 17 to 24 were the most likely to say they’d been assaulted. (The number of sexual assaults reported by men rose just slightly.) These numbers also reveal a huge gap between those who say they were assaulted across the military and those who actually report it. According to the Pentagon data, the military received a total of 7,623 reports of sexual assault in 2018, though not all of the victims were service members, and some reports reflected incidents that happened prior to military service. That comes out to about one in three victims reporting an assault, a slight uptick in reporting (about 13 percent) from 2017 — but still just a fraction of the number of actual cases reflected in the survey data. This is progress — just 7 percent of sexual assaults were reported in 2006 — but it’s still an alarming divide that adds to concerns about the military’s ability to handle and adjudicate sexual assault complaints. The DOD admits it needs to do better. But it’s still not doing enough. Patrick Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, called the findings of this latest report “unacceptable” in a memo to top officials. “To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other.” Pentagon officials have promised to take even more aggressive action against sexual assault in the military, but some critics question whether the military is equipped to police and reform itself when it comes to sexual assault. In March, Shanahan established the Sexual Assault Accountability and Investigation Task Force to review how the military handles sexual assault cases and make recommendations on how better to combat, prosecute, and provide support to victims, according to a memo Shanahan signed in March. The task force recommendations were released ahead of the report this week, and include some concrete reforms such as implementing measures to protect and support victims’ rights, and revising the Uniform Military Code of Justice — basically, the US military’s laws — to include a specific crime of sexual harassment. (The full list of recommendations is here.) Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) helped prompt the creation of the task force. She revealed at a congressional hearing in March that a superior had raped her during her service in the US Air Force. McSally said she did not report the assault right away, and when she did come forward, she said she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.” “Sexual assault whether in the military or in communities across our country is abhorrent and intolerable,” McSally said Thursday on Twitter, in response to the Pentagon’s report. “The numbers released today confirm that that the time is now to impart lasting change within the military and that it is more urgent than ever.” The military needs to improve its handling of sexual assault. But how it should do so it contentious. Right now, commanders have discretion whether or not to move forward with prosecutions for sexual assault, which some advocates say deters individuals from reporting sexual misconduct over fears of retaliation or bias. As Mark. E. Johnson put it in a 2018 Task and Purpose op-ed: “The overwhelming majority [of military leaders] do support prosecution. Just not against one of theirs. Members of a military unit share the dangers. They guard each other’s flanks. They become close.” Instead, some advocates believe the Pentagon should divorce sexual assault cases from the military hierarchy, and instead direct them through an independent prosecutorial process. Those military prosecutors would also be far better trained to investigate and assess sexual abuse complaints, advocates argue. 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has introduced legislation to do just that. But so far she’s failed to win support in Congress. As Vox’s Li Zhou and Emily Stewart reported, “Measures Gillibrand has pushed to address the issue have thus far been stymied and opposed by leaders in the military, who argue that such changes would up-end the way the body operates.” Gillibrand also called the findings of the Pentagon’s latest report unacceptable. “I’m tired of excuses from the Pentagon,” she wrote on Twitter. “They are failing our service members and have proven they can’t fix this.” “My bill would,” she added. While McSally’s testimony helped spur the latest action from the Pentagon, the Arizona senator has said commanders should “stay at the center of the solution” and that “we cannot command change from the outside alone.” That dampened some hope advocates had after her emotional testimony, as a potential key ally had seemed to reject that independent model. The Pentagon task force recommended a number of reforms specifically for commanders, including formalized training and measures like reporting requirements to make them more accountable to victims. But it still keeps them central to the processing of sexual assault cases. Shanahan, who serves as the acting Pentagon chief but hasn’t been nominated to the role permanently, has said he’s “resolved that we will do all we can as a Department to address sexual assault in our military.” Whether these reforms will do enough to reverse the troubling trends outlined in the Pentagon’s report seems doubtful — but the military has to start somewhere.<doc-sep>
The U.S. military saw a sharp increase in the number of service members who say they have experienced a sexual assault despite its efforts to curtail the issue, according to a report released by the Department of Defense on Thursday. The report, based on the results of an anonymous survey, estimated that 20,500 service members — 13,000 women and 7,500 men — across the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and the National Guard experienced “contact or penetrative sexual assault” while serving in the military in 2018. This is a noticeable uptick from the 14,900 service members who reported similar incidents the last time the military conducted the anonymous survey in 2016, and it is a significantly higher number than those who filed a formal report. Just 6,053 service members made a formal report in fiscal year 2018, the Pentagon noted. The issue particularly affects women serving across each branch of the military, according to the report, but women from 17-24 years old were found to be particularly at risk. Incidents involving active duty men remained “statistically unchanged” compared to 2016, the report noted. Roughly 6.2 percent of active duty women reported experiencing a sexual assault via the anonymous survey, which is up from the 4.3 percent of women who reported in 2016. The results of the survey also found that women in the Marine Corps reported experiencing the highest rate of sexual assaults at roughly 11 percent, up from 7 percent in 2016, followed by the Navy, Army and Air Force, respectively. Those branches also saw an uptick in estimated rates of assault, according to the survey results. Roughly one in five women who experienced sexual harassment while serving also experienced sexual assault, even when controlling for pay, service and deployment status, the report said. The results of the survey also indicated that the vast majority of sexual assaults of service members occurred between people who “work, train, or live in close proximity,” according to the report, and that “military women indicated that offenders were most often military men whom they considered to be a friend or acquaintance, acting alone.” Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in a letter to senior department officials on Thursday that the Pentagon will implement additional policies to curb and try to eliminate sexual assault in the military. "To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other. This is unacceptable," Shanahan said in the letter. "We cannot shrink from facing the challenge head on. We must, and will, do better." Dr. Elizabeth Van Winkle, the executive director of Department of Defense office of force resiliency, said she was “disheartened and frustrated” at the numbers during a press briefing Thursday, but said that the department is committed to addressing the issue. “They undercut the order and discipline necessary to maintain the strongest military force in the world…the order and discipline our Service members deserve,” she said. “This is men and women seeing things and doing things that contradict our core values, choosing not to take action, potentially because they don’t know how, they aren’t empowered to, or they don’t know they need to. This is a Department problem, and we are all responsible for fixing it.” She added, “Sexual assault is counter to our expectations for our force...but I am not without hope.” Despite the increase in reported incidents of sexual assault, the report does highlight some silver linings. For instance, the department said in the report that it believes policies put in place over the past decade have encouraged greater reporting of sexual harassment and assault. In 2006, one out of 14 service members who experience sexual assault reported it to a superior. In 2018, one in three service members reported incidents, the report said. The department also established a sexual assault accountability task force at the request of Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., in March. McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and the first female fighter pilot to fly a combat mission, revealed at an Armed Services Committee subcommittee hearing on military sexual assault in March that she was raped by a superior officer while on active duty. Shanahan said in his letter to DoD officials on Thursday that the department also plans to make sexual harassment a "stand alone" crime in the military justice system.