Reported sexual assaults at military academies decrease

The number of men and women subjected to unwanted sexual contact decreased from 2022-2024, the Department of Defense said Thursday. It’s the first decrease the department has seen in those numbers in a decade. Roughly one in five women experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2022, the DOD said. Those reports were less common this year, down to about one in eight. Among men the decrease was much more slight, with the prevalence of unwanted sexual contact remaining around one in 20.

Why did the numbers drop? The numbers declined compared to the previous year but still remained high compared to other years, the Pentagon said. Even so, the Pentagon has fought hard to eliminate sexual assault and harassment from the U.S. military and its academies. The decrease from 2022-2024 means those efforts bore fruit, the defense department said.

Dig deeper: Read Mary Muncy’s report in the WORLD archives about how sexual assaults in the U.S. Army were up 26% in 2022.