Charles Langston:Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reported sexual assaults at the U.S. military service academies dropped in 2024 for the second year in a row,Charles Langston according to new Pentagon data, marking a sharp turnaround from an alarming surge two years agothat triggered sweeping reviews and an overhaul in leadership.

The decline in reports was mirrored by a similar decrease in the total number of students who said in an anonymous survey that they experienced some type of unwanted sexual contact during the school year that ended in the spring.

Defense officials, however, warned on Thursday that the numbers are still high, and there is still a lot of work to be done.

According to the survey, which is done every other year, about 13% of female students said they experienced unwanted sexual contact in the 2024 school year, compared with more than 21% in 2022. For men, the rate decreased from 4.4% to 3.6%.

The reported assaults reflect familiar trends. Most of the alleged offenders are also academy students and are often known to the victim. They often happen after duty hours or on weekends and holidays. Drinking has long been a consistent factor.

Beth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s force resiliency office, called the new numbers encouraging. But she added, “the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment is still far too high. What this data tells us is that this is a difficult problem for all, but it is not an impossible problem to solve.”

A vast majority of students — 88% — responded to the survey. Defense officials said they are still concerned that, based on the survey, an estimated 783 students experienced unwanted sexual contact but just a small percentage reported it.

The U.S. military and defense leaders have pushed improvements in programs, leadership training and staffing to encourage more victims to report so they can receive help and perpetrators can be punished.

Defense officials released preliminary data much earlier than usual this year, and said the full report will go out in February. They said the early release was done to provide better information to school leaders who are implementing changes.

However, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will leave in January when President-elect Donald Trump takes office, and new leadership will take over the Pentagon. Trump and his pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, have vowed to eliminate “woke” policiesfostering diversity and equity, and it’s not clear how any of that may impact sexual assault prevention efforts.

Hegseth himself has been accused of sexual assault, which he denies, although he acknowledges making a settlement paymentto the woman.

Foster and others said Austin’s pressure on academy leaders to confront the problem led to a number of changes in how the schools foster better leaders and focus more stridently on sexual assault prevention.

The total number of reported sexual assaults at the academies is divided in an often complex and confusing way. Academy and defense officials focus on the number of assaults reported by cadets and midshipmen during their school year. But students sometimes file reports after they leave the academies, describing incidents that happened when they were in school.

The total is 106 for the 2024 school year, a sharp drop from 137 last year and 170 in 2022. The totals also decreased at each individual academy.

Students at the U.S. Naval Academy reported 47 assaults, a slight dip from 49 the previous year. The other two saw significant decreases: Students at the Air Force Academy in Colorado reported 34, compared with 45 last year, and those at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York reported 25, compared with 43.

In addition, eight students reported assaults last year that happened to them before they became students.

The military services and the academies have struggled for years to combat sexual assault and harassment, with myriad prevention, education and treatment programs. But despite reams of research, and expanded programs, the numbers have grown.

A renewed emphasis on it in the past several years has led to improvements and staff increases, although service members still complain that the videos and other programs are often outdated and don’t resonate as well with young troops.

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