Today the Defense Department released its “Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies,” which found that during the 2010-2011 academic year there were 65 reports of sexual assault at the three top military academies, up from 41 the previous year. Those are pretty concerning numbers, but the Pentagon has made tackling the problem a priority. Certainly that’s why it quickly released this information two days after Christmas, rather than waiting until everyone’s back from vacation.
According to the Washington Post, no reason was given for the large jump in reports. However, the Pentagon says it’s been encouraging victims to report sexual assaults, so this may just indicate that the message is being received. A spokeswoman for the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, which had 22 reported incidents compared to 11 in the previous year, said that midshipmen are given training on preventing and reporting harassment throughout all four years at the school. Col. Reni Renner, vice commandant culture and climate at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said, “We believe that there’s much more trust in our system than maybe we’ve seen in years past.” There were 33 reports filed at the Air Force Academy in the last year, up from 20 in the 2009-2010 school year.
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