Sexual assault reports at the U.S. military academies increased sharply during the 2020-2021 school year in a continuous increase that officials say is an upward trend of sexual assault at the academies.
The increase in sexual assault reports comes despite new sexual assault prevention and treatment programs that have been introduced to the academies.
Comparing sexual assault report totals over the past few years is difficult due to the Covid pandemic shortening in-person classes in the 2019-2020 school year. Therefore in this year, there were fewer reports than the previous year, but officials said that this is likely only due to students leaving the academy early because of the pandemic.
The latest numbers for the 2020-2021 school year had higher assault rates than the 2018-2019 school year before the pandemic began.
The overall spike in cases was caused by two particular bases, the Air Force Academy in Colorado and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There were 131 sexual assaults reported in 2020-2021, compared with 88 the previous year and 122 the year before that. Of these 131 reports, 52 were from the Air Force Academy, 46 were from West Point, and 33 were from the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland.
The increase comes as military leaders struggle to curb sexual assaults in the military as a whole. Lawmakers are demanding that there be better prevention efforts made and more aggressive prosecutions.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other leaders have acknowledged that they have not found answers, even as they continue to figure out what efforts work and which do not.
The trends are simply going in the wrong direction. Despite encouragement for students to come forward and report the assault, and promises of holding perpetrators accountable, the numbers are increasing. Prevention efforts have been underway for years, but whether they are working is another question.
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