<p>The Executive Summary of Service Academy Sexual Assault and Leadership Survey was released today.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dodig.osd.mil/%5B/url%5D">http://www.dodig.osd.mil/</a></p>
<p>The link's currently not working; it may be overloaded. In the meantime, here's a news summary from the Washington Post:</p>
<p>Here are 2 links discussing recent incidents at WP. In the meantime I spoke with a gentleman who has a daughter there. She is an upperclassman,and said that she has never encountered sexual harassment of any kind. </p>
<p>I think it is positive that WP has links to articles about these investigations on their web site. </p>
<p>March 18, 2005 </p>
<p>Pentagon Details School Sex Assault Study
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS </p>
<p>Filed at 11:47 p.m. ET </p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Women at U.S. military academies say they have faced 302 incidents of sexual assault since they enrolled, a figure the military says is comparable to civilian schools. </p>
<p><code>We are about where college campuses are, tragically. That's not, frankly, terribly surprising,'' said David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.</code>These young men and women come from civil society.'' </p>
<p>On Friday, he announced the results of the Pentagon's first comprehensive study of assaults at the academies along with a new military-wide policy aimed at protecting the confidentiality of people who report being sexually assaulted. </p>
<p>Of the incidents, about a third -- or 96 -- were reported to authorities. </p>
<p>Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz surveyed cadets and midshipmen at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., last spring on an anonymous basis to gauge the scope and reporting of sexual assaults. </p>
<p>About 97 percent of women at the academies -- 1,906 -- responded to the survey. Because of the large number of men at the academies, surveyors used a random statistical sample of 30 percent of the men -- or 3,107 -- evenly distributed and represented across the academies. </p>
<p>Over 50 percent of female respondents and 11 percent of male respondents indicated experiencing some type of sexual harassment since entering the schools, the executive summary said. </p>
<p>Both the survey and the policy are in response to sexual assault issues in the armed forces and a scandal at the Air Force Academy that surfaced in January 2003. It led to reviews of the military's sexual assault policies and the departures of the academy's leadership. </p>
<p>Last year, nearly 150 women came forward with accusations that they had been sexually assaulted by fellow cadets between 1993 and 2003. Many alleged they were punished, ignored or ostracized by commanders for speaking out. </p>
<p>Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., called the survey results disturbing and disappointing. ``Unfortunately, we have a serious problem at all the service academies that is going to require a concerted effort of the services, Congress and the alumni to address,'' he said.
Schmitz's survey found that the women said that since they became cadets and midshipmen there were 64 incidents in which an offender had intercourse with them against their will or without consent, and 30 incidents of anal and oral sex against their will or without consent.
It also found that there were 176 incidents in which female cadets' and midshipmen's private parts'' weretouched, stroked or fondled'' without their consent, and 127 incidents in which someone physically attempted to have sexual intercourse or oral or anal sex but was not successful.
The assaults occurred most often in dormitories or barracks and when the women were freshmen and sophomores. The women reported that fellow cadets and midshipmen were the offenders.
Most women said they didn't report the assaults because they feared public disclosure, ostracism, harassment, ridicule, not being believed and other repercussions. Others said they didn't believe the offenses were serious enough to report and that they handled matters themselves.
The men polled said there were 55 incidents of sexual assault since they entered the schools.
Under the new policy, victims now will be able to confidentially disclose details of sexual assault to a health care provider, a designated sexual assault response coordinator or a victim's advocate and receive medical treatment without triggering an official investigation.
Currently, victims can report assaults to chaplains confidentially and without fear that an investigation will be launched. That will not change.
The Pentagon's policy ``prefers complete reporting of sexual assaults to activate both victims' services and accountability actions. However, recognizing that a mandate of complete reporting may represent a barrier for victims to gain access to services when the victim desires no command or law enforcement involvement, there is a need to provide an option for confidential reporting,'' Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in a March 16 memo to the service branches. </p>
<p>They have until mid-June to implement the policy, and Chu said he expected the number of reported incidents to rise because of it. </p>
<p>On the Net: </p>
<p>Defense Department: <a href="http://www.dod.gov%5B/url%5D">http://www.dod.gov</a></p>
<p>Pentagon Sets New Policy on Reporting Sex Assaults at Academies
By THOM SHANKER </p>
<p>WASHINGTON, March 18 - Victims of sexual assault at the nation's military academies will soon be able to report to specified counselors and receive medical treatment without immediately setting off an official inquiry, Pentagon officials said on Friday. </p>
<p>The officials said the new policy was devised to increase the reporting of sexual assault by assuring victims that they could privately seek counseling and medical care before being faced with the difficulties of an investigation. </p>
<p>Details of the new policy were discussed as the Defense Department released results of a new survey in which students at the nation's military academies said that only about one-third of sexual assaults were reported. </p>
<p>The new policy of "restricted reporting" on sexual assault "will encourage more victims of sexual assault to come forward and seek help, providing commanders with a better understanding of what's actually happening in their commands," said David S. C. Chu, the Pentagon's top personnel officer. </p>
<p>The new policy, Mr. Chu said, allows victims of sexual assault to contact "specified individuals without necessarily initiating an investigative process, while still giving them access to medical care, to counseling and to victim advocacy." </p>
<p>The "sexual assault response coordinators," he said, include medical professionals, victims' advocates and chaplains. Previously, only chaplains could assist victims of sexual assault without starting an official investigation. </p>
<p>Under the new policy, which goes into effect in June, academy commanders will be informed of sexual assaults within 24 hours of the confidential report and request for counseling or medical care, but the commander will not be given any information identifying the victim. </p>
<p>Mr. Chu, whose official title is undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said, "Although the department would prefer complete reporting of sexual assaults to activate both victim services and accountability actions, we believe our first priority needs to be for victims to be protected, to have them treated with dignity and respect, and to receive the medical treatment, care and counseling that they deserve." </p>
<p>He said the new policy would provide victims with greater control over the release of information about their assault and give them time to make more informed decisions about possible criminal proceedings. </p>
<p>"Many victims are unprepared to withstand the rigors of a full-fledged investigation immediately following their assault, especially in the first several hours after such a tragic event," Mr. Chu said. The policy, he added, will develop trust and "increase their willingness to come forward in the first place and to pursue an investigation eventually." </p>
<p>Joseph E. Schmitz, the Pentagon inspector general, said the department's anonymous survey questioned 4,200 cadets and midshipmen at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies. Each female student at each academy was surveyed in March and April of last year, with a 97 percent response rate. About 1,000 men were surveyed. </p>
<p>The survey found 302 incidents when women reported they had been sexually assaulted but that only about a third were officially reported to academy authorities. </p>
<p>Mr. Chu said the percentage of sexual assaults was similar to that in the civilian world. "I think the broad conclusion I would reach is that we are about where college campuses are, tragically," he said.</p>
<p>When my daughter first expressed interest in USNA, many people mentioned the rape/sexual harassment cases at USAFA. We followed that situation and carefully read "Code of Dishonor" by Clara Bingham in the December 2003 issue of Vanity Fair, along with other news accounts of the trials/investigation. Frankly, I think USAFA had some major "climate" issues that created an overall hostile environment for women. Having said that, I believe the USAFA investigation/command shake-up/tri-academy survey gave all of the service academies and the military itself a wake-up call regarding sexual harassment/assault and the serious consequences. So, with all the attention given to this matter, we feel that USNA and the other service academies have even less tolerance for this kind of misconduct than in the past, and are indeed safer than most college campuses.</p>
<p>i haven't experienced usna yet, so i can't make a comparison, but honestly, civilian schools have a LOT of sexual assault. i go to a small college that's not known as a party school at all, but every girl i know here--including girls who aren't planning to have sex until they're married--is on birth control as a "precaution." i know of 5 incidents that have involved people on my floor, only one of which was reported because the person involved had been drugged and was hallucinating. anyway, all i'm trying to say is, if my hall is an accurate representation of civilian schools, well, it's probably a lot worse here than at the academies. i KNOW that 25% of the girls have been assaulted, and i doubt that i know of every incident.</p>
<p>also, note that the assault cases at the academies are cases where they "did not give consent or were forced." most of them are probably the "did not give consent cases." we had a big debate about consent at the begining of the year here, tempers flared and all that, but the school's policy is that a girl cannot give consent if she's at all drunk (but a guy can). i asked a friend at usafa, and he said their consent policy is similar... so when you judge the official number of cases of sexual assault, keep in mind that it's pretty likely most of those cases were, much as i hate the phrase, cases where a girl got drunk and "changed her mind the next morning."</p>
<p>take in mind when you read this stuff that newspapers love to make us look worse than we are. I can assure that at USNA everyone here is very careful about any kind of sexual harassment, and it is not as bad as those surveys make it out to be.</p>
<p>from my brief experience at the academy i think the naval academy puts alot of emphasis on gender equality. during summer seminar the xo of our company was eating at our table and he told the girls to not wear white shorts because in the last session they got wet and you could see their underwear. one of the kids in my squad made a joke asking if it was thong underwear and the xo took alot of offense to it and left the table. it kind of threw us off guard, but our squad leader told us a story about his plebe summer when he was standing next to a female classmate at the dinner table. when they were rigging the table, she was unable to open the juice box with her knife so my squad leader told her to "hit it like a man." this did not go over well at all with his cadre who told him the correct response was "hit it like a midshipmen." he never lived it down the rest of the summer. so even if there are problems at the air force academy and there may be some at navy as well, i believe they are doing a good job of trying to fight that kind of stuff.</p>
<p>There are most likely sexual assault issues at all the service academies, and honestly, I don't think things like that will ever completely disappear. Regardless of how much screening is done, cadets/midshipmen are still a cross section of society.</p>
<p>Although no sexual assaults should be justified, I think it is important to look at the context of them. A very large percentage of them involve alcohol, and many of them involve a lot of regulation breaking that helped to set the stage for such acts. I'm not blaming the victims, however, I think it is important to keep a high degree of situational awareness and not do stupid things which put one in a less-than-favorable situation to begin with.</p>
<p>As for safety at military academies compared to civilian colleges, I don't think there is any comparison. The academies are safer by far. A look at crime statistics between the two types of organizations should provide some proof. No, things aren't perfect at the academies, but I don't think it's logical to think that any group of thousands of people in their late teens/early 20s will be a utopia.</p>