The Pentagon claims that a lengthy report released Thursday shows it has improved how it deals with sexual assault. But critics argue that the problem is still grave and systemic, and the 2015 defense spending bill winding its way through Congress might not leave much room for improvement.
While the Department of Defense found that victims appear less frightened to report sex crimes and that assaults are on the decline, it also admitted that 62 percent of victims who reported transgressions this year faced retaliation.
“The data shows a persistent hostile culture for survivors remains the rule, not the exception,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said, referring to the statistic. “Even more troubling, the military’s rates for sexual assault related convictions declined since last year–from 5.2% in 2013 to 3.8% this year.”
While Speier and other critics believe that the problem will remain widespread if the military chain of command continues to be responsible for investigating sexual assaults, that doesn’t look set to change soon. The 2015 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday–a bill expected to be passed by the Senate next week–leaves the incumbent system largely unperturbed.
“The chain of command is basically left in tact, although there are certain appeal processes that are available,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said Wednesday morning on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. “It’s not as strong as Sen. Gillibrand would like to see, and I would like to see it stronger, also,” he added, referring to Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a prominent advocate for military justice reform.
Thursday’s report claimed that the number of victims fell by 27% to 19,000, from 26,000 in 2012, while the number of reports was up by 2,590 to 5938 in the same time frame.
