Pentagon report finds sexual assaults in the military spiked in 2018

The estimated number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military rose almost 38 percent in 2018 compared with the last time service members were surveyed in 2016, according to a report released by the Defense Department on Thursday.

The anonymous survey has been administered every two years since 2004, and based on the responses received, the military estimates that 20,500 service members — 13,000 women and 7,500 men — experienced a form of assault last year. In 2016, it was estimated that 14,900 service members experienced some type of sexual assault.

There were 6,053 reports of sexual assault in 2018, the Pentagon said, and right now, the odds of a woman in the service between the ages of 17 and 20 being sexually assaulted is 1 in 8, the report said.

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"To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other," Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in a memo. "This is unacceptable. We cannot shrink from facing the challenge head on. We must, and will, do better." A senior official told reporters on Thursday that the Pentagon is considering making sexual harassment a crime within the military.