Sexual misconduct reports are highest at West Point
Survey numbers surpass other service academies
By Kelly Kennedy
Times staff writer
After several years of serving as the model military academy, West Point has crept ahead of the Naval Academy and the scandal-plagued Air Force Academy in numbers of cadets who say they have been sexually assaulted or harassed.
During the 2004-2005 school year, 6 percent of West Point women who took a Defense Manpower Data Survey said they had been sexually assaulted, 62 percent said they had been sexually harassed and 96 percent said they had experienced sexist behavior. The survey defined assault as rape or unwanted touching or fondling.
At the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., 4 percent of women surveyed said they had been sexually assaulted, 49 percent said they had been sexually harassed and 82 percent said they had dealt with sexist behavior.
At the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., 5 percent of women surveyed said they had been sexually assaulted, 59 percent said they faced sexual harassment and 93 percent said they had been the object of sexist behavior.
The survey is part of a congressionally mandated plan to deal with sexual assault and harassment at U.S. military academies following a scandal that erupted in 2003 at the Air Force Academy after scores of female cadets reported being the victims of sexual misconduct and a leadership that was either unresponsive or ostracizing.
That experience and a series of initiatives to correct the problem help explain how the Air Force fared best in the latest survey, said a Pentagon spokesman. “The Air Force was forced by circumstances to react to it before the other academies,” said Roger Kaplan, spokesman for the Department of Defense Joint Task Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response team. “I’m pretty confident that [if] you give Annapolis and West Point another year, and they’ll be where the Air Force Academy is now.”
But at West Point, spokesman Lt. Col. Kent Cassella said the school has had sexual harassment education programs in place since 2002 and that the superintendent conducted a survey that year to look at sexual assault and harassment issues. This is the first time the numbers have gone up, Cassella said.
“Our constant goal is to eliminate this illegal behavior and provide a safe and healthy environment for our cadets,” he said.
On March 18, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced a new Defense Department-wide policy allowing victims of sexual assault to confidentially seek counseling and medical care. The academies, including West Point, also implemented sexual response coordinators and victims’ advocates within the past year.
Kaplan said the new policies could have led to an increase in reporting assault and harassment.
Congress ordered five annual surveys as part of a series of steps taken after dozens of women reported rapes at the Air Force Academy in 2003. In the latest survey, the second of a series of mandated reports, 2,049 women and 3,287 men filled out a pen-and-paper survey at the three academies. At West Point, 15 percent of the 4,000 students are women.
Among the key findings of the survey for West Point cadets:
• 97 percent said the assaults were by fellow cadets.
• 74 percent of sexual assaults of women occurred on the installation.
• 97 percent of sexual assaults on women were perpetrated by men, and 3 percent were by women.
• 97 percent of offenders against women were other cadets; 3 percent were faculty members.
• 9 percent of assaulted women said they were assaulted by more than one person at a time.
• 7 percent of women who reported an incident said they experienced retaliation from an authority.
• 39 percent of women who reported an incident said they faced other repercussions.
• 34 percent of assaulted women said alcohol or drugs were involved.
• 20 percent of assaulted women said they were so intoxicated they could not consent.
• 29 percent of assaulted women said the offender was intoxicated.
• 29 percent of assaulted women said the offender used force to make them consent.
Authors said that because of changes made to the survey, the findings could not be compared against previous results.
That’s one of the issues that Anita Sanchez, director of communications for the Miles Foundation, an organization that promotes awareness about sexual assault and harassment within the military, said worries her about the methodologies of the survey. when survey questions change from year to year, it’s impossible to compare the numbers or have a benchmark to see how the academies are doing, she said.
“We need to be able to look at apples versus apples — not just with the academies, but also with civilian college campuses,” she said.
Sanchez said she was not surprised to see that 64 percent of West Point women believed the educational programs were slightly or not at all effective in preventing sexual harassment, because several civilian studies have shown that such training has little impact. For it to work, she said, students need the training at least quarterly.
Cassella, however, said that cadets surveyed correctly identified sexual assault and harassment, as well as reporting procedures, as taught in training.
West Point received a copy of the survey Dec. 24, and Cassella said his command plans to look at it further and then decide what action to make.
“Our ultimate goals is for our cadets to think, four years from now, how do you prevent these things for your soldiers?” he said. “This is one of those issues we know we always have to focus on.”