DOD Releases 2021 Active-Duty Sexual Assault Annual Report
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 2, 2022
PRESS CONTACT:
Victoria Moore
DOD Releases 2021 Active-Duty Sexual Assault Annual Report
Washington D.C.: September 2, 2022, the DoD released its 2021 annual report on sexual assault among active-duty service members which included disturbing results (www.sapr.mil). Across the Services responses to the DoD survey show an estimated 35,785 incidents of unwanted sexual contact occurred in 2021 which is up by 8.4% for women and 1.5% for men since 2018. Worse still, the Department acknowledges that assault is vastly underreported. Only 7,260 assaults, or about 20%, were officially reported. DoD acknowledges that “sexual assault and sexual harassment remain persistent and corrosive problems across the military.”
The report also shows that an increase in sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and workplace hostility correlates to this increase in sexual assaults. Command climate and service culture are noted as predictive of all of these.
At the same time, there is some positive news starting with an enhanced focus on sexual assault prevention and command climate by leadership across the Department and Services as well as increased attention from Congress.
SWAN urges both the Administration and Congress to continue to push for the prevention of sexual assault, improved care for survivors, and increased oversight of investigation and adjudication of charges of sexual misconduct in the military. Only if leaders up and down the chain of command are held accountable will this problem be adequately addressed.
Service Women's Action Network
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