By the Numbers - May 13, 2013

By the Numbers - May 13, 2013

3,374

The number of official "reports of sexual assault involving Service members" in FY 2012, according to the annual report recently related by the Department of Defense (DoD) Sexual Assault and Prevention Office (SAPRO). This represents an increase of 6% over the 3,192 sexual assaults reported in FY 2011.

Additionally, DoD estimated -- via anonymous surveys and sampling research -- that 26,000 service personnel experienced “unwanted sexual contact” last year, a significant increase from the 19,300 unwanted encounters estimated to have accurred in FY 2010. "Unwanted sexual contact," according to the DoD, "means intentional sexual contact that was against a person’s will or which occurred when the person did not or could not consent, and includes completed or attempted sexual intercourse, sodomy (oral or anal sex), penetration by an object, and the unwanted touching of genitalia and other sexually-related areas of the body."

Some recent (full text) papers and reports about military sexual assault: