The number of reported sexual assaults in the military dropped almost 4 percent last year, the second year in a row such criminal activity dipped in the ranks, according to a new Pentagon report released Thursday.
From fiscal year 2023 to 2024, there were 8,195 reported sexual assaults involving service members, compared with 8,515 the year prior and 8,942 in 2022.
The decline was largely fueled by a significant drop in sexual assaults in the Army, with a 13 percent decrease across the service, The Associated Press reported.
All the other services saw increases, however, with the Navy jumping 4.3 percent, the Air Force seeing a 2.2 percent spike and the Marine Corps finding a less than 1 percent uptick.
But while defense officials said the decline was a positive sign, they added that more needs to be done to address the issue as the numbers are still too high and not enough victims are coming forward.
To that point, sexual harassment reports across the military rose slightly in 2024, to 3,014 up from 2,980 in 2023, with most filed by female service members accusing male perpetrators but many hesitant to files formal complaints.
What’s more, the Pentagon is now able to link sexual assaults to military readiness — a first this year — showing that such criminal acts do indeed have a negative impact on the force as a whole. Using a survey and administrative data, officials found that service members who had experienced sexual assault experienced higher rates of separation from the military and were more likely to be demoted or miss a promotion compared to those who hadn't experienced such an event, according to the report.
“Sexual violence has no place in our military — it will not be tolerated, condoned, or ignored,” according to a Pentagon statement accompanying the report. “Such actions undermine unit cohesion, readiness, lethality and fundamentally contradict our efforts to restore the warrior ethos.”
Nate Galbreath, director of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, told reporters Thursday that while officials are encouraged by the reporting rates and improvements to the Pentagon’s response processes, the issue is still likely much larger than the yearly reports show.
Officials also have acknowledged that the Trump administration-led personnel and budget cuts, which hang over the Pentagon, could impact future work on sexual assault prevention and prosecution.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he wants to slash tens of thousands of civilian jobs in DOD by autumn, part of President Trump’s effort to greatly reduce the size of the federal workforce.
Galbreath said it’s not clear how the cuts will affect sexual assault prevention programs and that officials are asking for details on the number of employees who work the issue who have been laid off or took an early retirement offer.
Officials said that when the Pentagon’s hiring freeze went into effect earlier this year, roughly 300 prevention workforce roles that needed to be filled were put on hold, though some departments were able to receive exemptions.
The Associated Press reported Monday that personnel cuts across DOD will delay plans to hire at least 1,000 more civilians to help prevent a range of behavior problems within the military, including sexual assault and suicides. Plans to have about 2,500 employees throughout the military services for such work by fiscal year 2028 have been slowed due to the hiring freeze and cuts, officials told the outlet.
The cuts have sparked concerns from Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) - two lawmakers who have long pushed for better ways to address sexual assault and harassment in the ranks - who wrote to Hegseth and the leaders of the military services their worries such programs could be significantly altered or terminated.
“Even minor reductions risk compromising decades of progress toward ending sexual abuse and harassment in the Department,” the senators said in the letter, as reported by The AP. “Prompt action is essential to reinforcing victims’ belief in the words of their leadership.”
Until the past two years, military sexual assault reports had steadily gone up for much of the past decade - exempting a slight decrease in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when troops were much less likely to interact.
The recent decreases have buoyed officials, who say they’re encouraged by the downward trend but that more work needs to be done to bring numbers lower.
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