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(CNN) — The rate of sexual assaults in US military academies “significantly decreased” in 2024, a new Pentagon report released on Thursday said, down from the highest rate ever recorded in 2022. But officials warned that more work was still needed, as the latest data still indicates a higher rate of assaults than in past years.
“We believe this data indicates that we are on the right track, that the recommendations and the reforms that are underway are having an impact,” Beth Foster, the executive director of the Office of Force Resiliency for the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, told reporters on Thursday. “But unless we continue to institutionalize that work, there is a possibility that these rates and this trend could go right back up again.”
The data released in the Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence at the Military Academies showed that 783 cadets and midshipmen experienced sexual assault — down from 1,136 in 2022, when the last prevalence survey was released. In 2022, Foster called the high rate of assaults “extremely disappointing and upsetting.”
This year, Foster called the data “encouraging” and said that for the “first time in 10 years, the department is seeing a decrease in sexual assault prevalence at the military service academies.” But while the decrease recorded in 2024 is significant, the number is still high compared to past years.
“[I]t is the second highest estimated number of students experiencing unwanted sexual contact on record,” said Lisa Davis, the deputy director of Health & Resilience Research with the Office of People Analytics.
There was also a slight decrease in numbers of reports of assault from 2022 – roughly one in eight people who experienced sexual assault made a report, according to the data. Officials typically want to see an increase in reporting to indicate a trust in the system to handle reports of assault appropriately.
“What I would say is that compared to the active force, our rates of reporting are much lower at the academies,” Dr. Nate Galbreath, director for the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, told reporters. “So we think that there’s more work to be done there.”
Foster attributed the decline in incidents of assault to “unprecedented” investment in combating assault and harassment, particularly at the military service academies. Evaluations of the academies in 2023 found that assault was “a lagging indicator of what was poor climate” at the academies, she said.
That poor climate included a sense of a “lack of trust” and transparency, Dr. Andra Tharp, the Director of the Office of Command, Climate and Well-being Integration, told reporters. While the new data showed an increase of trust in the academies among both men and women, women remained “much less trusting” than men.
In May, the Pentagon released a broader report on sexual assault in the military that also showed a decrease in reports of assault for the first time in nearly a decade. According to the report, 7,266 service members reported a sexual assault in 2023, compared to 7,387 the previous year. It was the first decrease on record since 2015.
Additionally, roughly 29,061 service members experienced unwanted sexual contact, down from an estimated 35,875 in 2021. Foster said at the time that the prioritization of handling assault and harassment from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was “starting to bend the curve,” and that Austin had committed more than $1 billion in fiscal year 2024 to efforts on reducing assault and harassment.
“While it’s impossible for us to know exactly why we’re seeing this decrease in sexual assault prevalence,” Foster said at the time, “we are cautiously optimistic that the department’s unprecedented investment is having an impact, particularly when it comes to our focus on prevention and building healthy climate.”
Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that Dr. Andra Tharp is Director of the Office of Command, Climate and Well-being Integration at the Pentagon.
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