Sailors assigned to the USS Arlington, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, form a teal ribbon on the flight deck on April 26, 2021 in Norfolk, Va., for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The teal ribbon represents a symbol of support for the cause. (John D. Bellino/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — Sexual assault among cadets and midshipmen at service academies is trending down for the first time 10 years, falling from a historic high set in 2022, according to a report released Thursday by the Pentagon.
The initial data released in the Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence at the Military Academies shows an estimated 783 academy students experienced unwanted sexual contact in the 2023-24 school year compared with 1,136 in 2022. Among women, this represents a decrease in instances of sexual assault from 21.4% in 2022 to 13.3% in 2024. Among men across the same time frame, trends went from 4.4% to 3.6%.
While trending down from 2022, the rates are still some of the highest documented at the academies.
“We believe this data indicates that we are on the right track — that the recommendations and the reforms that are underway are having an impact,” said Beth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, which oversees sexual assault and suicide prevention efforts. “But unless we continue to institutionalize that work, there is a possibility that these rates and this trend could go right back up again.”
Foster’s office was directed in 2023 by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to conduct site evaluations at the academies to determine the prevalence of sexual assault.
The force resiliency office defines sexual assault as unwanted sexual touching, attempted penetration and completed penetration where the victim could not or did not consent.
Foster’s staff spent one week at each academy, during which students attended a briefing on a sexual assault survey. Of those who attended, 88% voluntarily completed the survey.
“We found that it was the overall climate and training environment across the service academies that was undermining their ability to prevent these harmful behaviors,” Foster said. “Sexual assault was ultimately a lagging indicator of what was a poor climate.”
Contributing to that climate was a lack of trust in the academies, according to Andra Tharp, senior prevention adviser for the Office of Force Resiliency and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.
“The climate was really characterized by a sense of lack of trust, lack of transparency and a lot of mixed messages. So, senior leaders may be sending one message, but the message that the cadets and midshipmen were getting about how to treat each other, how to hold each other accountable was not aligned with the message the senior leaders were trying to set,” she said.
The 2024 survey asked students whether they trusted the academy to protect their privacy and ensure their safety should they report a sexual assault incident. Women and men indicated having greater trust in the academy than they did in 2022, but women remain much less trusting than men, the survey found.
Foster described the initial data as “encouraging” and credited the downtrend to a series of changes that the Defense Department has implemented in recent years. The findings released Thursday were a summary of the complete report, which will be made public in February.
The Pentagon nearly doubled its sexual assault prevention budget to more than $1 billion in 2023 and 2024 — an effort to drive down rates of sexual assaults and harassment within its ranks and at its academies. Changes at military service academies include reducing class sizes and revamping officer training to focus on sexual assault prevention.
“The focus and commitment from department leaders on this issue is starting to have an impact, but we have a lot more work to do,” Foster said. “While we are making progress, the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment is still far too high.”
The Defense Department’s investment needs to be sustained to maintain a downward trend in rates of sexual assault across the academies, she said. Combating sexual violence and risk factors that lead to sexual violence, Foster added, is essential to maintaining an effective, lethal force.
“In particular at the academies, if we are going to produce the leaders that we need to lead in this complex and dynamic threat environment, we need to address this issue,” she said.
