U.S. military sexual assault rates 2 to 4 times higher than govt estimates, study says

[rangerrebew]

U.S. military sexual assault rates 2 to 4 times higher than govt estimates, study says

The Brown University report faults the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as putting the military's long-standing issue of sexual assault secondary to force readiness.
 
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Aug. 14, 2024, 10:00 AM EDT
By Phil Helsel and Courtney Kube

The number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military is likely two to four times higher than government estimates, according to a new study out of Brown University.

The study, completed by the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute, compared Defense Department data on sexual assaults with data that was not from the DOD to estimate sexual assault figures in the military since 2001.

“During and beyond the 20 years of the post-9/11 wars, independent data suggest that actual sexual assault prevalence is two to four times higher than DoD estimations — 75,569 cases in 2021 and 73,695 cases in 2023,” the authors wrote in the report, which was released Wednesday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/us-military-sexual-assault-rates-2-4-higher-govt-estimates-study-says-rcna166490

[rangerrebew]

Military sexual assault rates may be 3-4 times higher than Pentagon says, report finds
The report’s analysis of non-DOD data found that 24% of active-duty women and 1.9% of active-duty men experienced sexual assault over the course of the war in Afghanistan.
Patty Nieberg

Posted on Aug 15, 2024 6:51 PM EDT
 
 
Sexual assaults in the military might be three to four times more frequent than Pentagon estimates, a new study shows.


While the military reported 35,900 sexual assaults in 2021, the study found that the true number may have been roughly 75,500. For 2023, the Pentagon reported 29,000 assaults, but the researchers behind the study say the true number might have been 73,700.

The report, released by the Costs of War project at Brown University, focused on sexual assaults across the two decades of post-9/11 wars, from the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to 2023. According to the report’s analysis of non-DOD data, over the course of the war in Afghanistan, 24% of active-duty women and 1.9% of active-duty men experienced sexual assault.

The report analyzed independent data sources, categorizing them by low, mid and high-range estimates. On the conservative end, DOD sexual assault rates could be two to four times less than what independent data shows. On the higher end, estimates suggest that the prevalence of sexual assault could be ten times higher than DOD numbers. The report was written by Jennifer Greenburg, a researcher at the University of Sheffield and Stanford University who specializes in war, gender and humanitarianism. Greenburg concluded that the two to four times higher metric is “a conservative but realistic estimation” that is consistent with figures found in other investigative reporting.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-sexual-assault-rates-higher-than-pentagon-estimates/