Sexual assault up by 13% in US military in 2018

May 03, 2019 00:16

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan called for tougher action against sexual assault in the US military after an annual Pentagon report said the number of assaults in 2018 had risen from recent years.

Sexual assaults reported by Defense Department employees, both men and women, jumped 13 per cent last year to 7,263 compared to 2017.

Moreover, actual sexual assaults were likely to be about triple the reported number, given the estimate that just one out of three victims in the military file a complaint.

"It is clear that sexual assault and sexual harassment are persistent challenges," Shanahan said in a statement.

Around 6.2 percent of women in the Department of Defense experienced sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact in 2018, compared to 4.3 percent two years earlier, according to the report.

The level for men was much lower and relatively stable: 0.7 percent experienced assault in 2018, slightly higher than 0.6 percent two years ago.

The problem was worst in the Marines: some 10.7 percent of women in that service reported sexual assault last year, compared to 7.5 percent in the Navy and lower rates in the other services.

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