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Number of reported military sexual assaults shot up 50% this year.

Courtesy of Politico:

The number of reported sexual assaults across the military shot up by more than 50 percent this year, an increase that defense officials say may suggest that victims are becoming more willing to come forward after a tumultuous year of scandals that shined a spotlight on the crimes and put pressure on the military to take aggressive action.

A string of high-profile assaults and arrests triggered outrage in Congress and set off months of debate over how to change the military justice system, while military leaders launched a series of new programs intended to beef up accountability and encourage victims to come forward.

According to early data obtained by The Associated Press, there were more than 5,000 reports of sexual assault filed during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, compared to the 3,374 in 2012. Of those 2013 reports, about 10 percent involved incidents that occurred before the victim got into the military, up from just 4 percent only a year ago. That increase, officials said, suggests that confidence in the system is growing and that victims are more willing to come forward.

Asked about the preliminary data, defense officials were cautious in their conclusions. But they said surveys, focus groups and repeated meetings with service members throughout the year suggest that the number of actual incidents — from unwanted sexual contact and harassment to violent assaults — has remained largely steady.

As much as I would like to take solace in the fact that the increase is not due to more attacks but instead due to the fact that more are being reported, the fact that the number is more than 5,000 kind of prevents me from doing that.

And as we know between 50 to 90% of rapes go unreported. So even if there has been an uptick in the number of reported cases, the vast majority of them are not brought to the attention of the military, which means the rape culture within our armed services is completely out of control.

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