Despite Prevention Programs, Sexual Assaults Rise At Military Academies

|

February 14th, 2019

2017 graduation and commissioning ceremony at the U.S. Naval Academy. An anonymous Pentagon survey found that 747 students at the Navy, Army and Air Force academies experienced unwanted sexual contact during the past year, a nearly 50 percent increase from a similar survey taken two years earlier.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

Congress is keeping watch and the military has introduced prevention programs. Yet sexual assaults at military service academies keep rising. The leaders of those academies got an earful when they testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee on Wednesday.

“After a decade-plus of concerted efforts to address sexual harassment and assault, the problem has only gotten worse,” said Jackie Speier, the California Democrat who led the hearing of the Military Personnel subcommittee. “This isn’t a blip, a ‘me too’ bump, or some accident. It’s a clear illustration of a destructive trend and systemic problem.”

Cadets and midshipmen at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies formally reported 117 sexual assaults in the 2017-18 school year, up slightly from 112 a year earlier. The number has mostly been trending upward over the past decade.

Related

Top Stories