“In fiscal 2008, the department received a total of 2,908 reports of sexual assault involving service members, representing an eight percent increase from fiscal 2007.”

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Quote pulled from this DOD press release, which provides an overview of this DOD report. Excerpt from Executive Summary below:

– Aggregate Report of Sexual Assault Incidents: In FY08 there were 2,908
reports of sexual assault involving Military Service members:
-There were 2,265 Unrestricted Reports involving Military Service
members. 1,594 (70%) of these reports had Military Service members as
victims. Some of these reports included more than one victim resulting in a
total of 1,752 Service members victims in the Unrestricted Reports
received.
– Service member victims made 753 Restricted Reports of sexual assault.
Fifteen percent (110) of victims that made Restricted Reports decided to
change to an Unrestricted Report and participate in a criminal investigation.
As a result of the change, 643 remained as Restricted Reports.
– The Military Services completed a total of 2,389 criminal investigations on
reports made during and prior to FY08, which involved 2,763 subjects.

Via. A study last year found that 15% U.S. veterans suffered sexual trauma.   Nan Hunter blogged here about the pressure on U.S. servicewomen not to report sexual assualts. Kathleen Bergin blogged about the issue here. Two years ago I did a related retrospective link round up here.

–Ann Bartow

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