The military is holding up the release of a report that ranks the risk of sexual assault for troops by military installation, USA Today has reported.
At the Pentagon’s request, RAND Corp. has compiled a report that uses military sexual assault data from 2014 to evaluate the risk or frequency of sexual assault. It was supposed to have been released months ago, according to USA Today.
But for now, military officials are not releasing that report publicly, citing concerns about methodology and accuracy.
Air Force Maj. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told USA Today: “Estimating risk for a large number of military installations worldwide requires some complex statistical analysis, and RAND’s 2014 military survey was not designed with this task in mind.”
“We are working with RAND to better understand and validate its statistical methods used.”
Rand says it defends the report and conclusions, USA Today said.
No date has been offered for when the report will be released.
The Pentagon has recognized the issue of sexual assault within the ranks of the military. This April, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis released a memo that said, “sexual assault is one of the most destructive factors in building a mission-focused military.”
Neil is a former US Army Captain and served operational deployments in South Korea and Afghanistan. He is currently an Editorial Fellow at the Military Times.
