Secretary of Defense Statement on Progress Toward Addressing Sexual Misconduct at the Military Service Academies

I can announce a significant reduction in the estimated prevalence rate of sexual assault and sexual harassment at our Military Service Academies. The initial results of the Academic Program Year (APY) 2023-24 Service Academy Gender Relations Survey show a significant decrease in these harmful behaviors for both women and men, compared to estimates from APY 2021-22. This reverses an alarming upward trend in the estimated prevalence of sexual assault and sexual harassment at the academies that the survey observed in recent years.

Our Military Service Academies train and teach the United States military's future leaders, who will lead our Service members through complex and dynamic threat environments. To succeed on the battlefield, our troops must work together as a team and trust one another. To build the strongest teams possible, we must root out harmful behaviors that erode trust and cohesion among our warfighters.

The reported progress is the result of principled leadership, which has made it a priority to foster healthy team cultures at our service academies. Since 2021, the Department has invested unprecedented resources and instituted numerous reforms to tackle the root causes of sexual assault and sexual harassment. These measures include implementing On-site Installations Evaluations and establishing the Climate Transformation Task Force.

After the APY 2021-22 survey showed an increase in the estimated prevalence of sexual assault and harassment at our academies, I directed the Military Departments to overhaul our approach to leadership training at those institutions and to focus on developing the fundamental qualities shared by leaders of character: trust, respect, and accountability. This year, we are beginning to see the effects of these changes. This year's preliminary data reflect the ongoing commitment by leaders across the Department to ensure that all of our teammates are safe and supported, even as they remind us all that we still have far more work to do.

We do not have one teammate to spare. The academies must continue to develop future leaders who will prevent behaviors that hurt our teammates and damage our military readiness. We must continue to take care of all of our people-including our cadets and midshipmen, our military's future leaders-and to ensure that our work to end sexual assault and sexual harassment in our ranks endures.

Preliminary results are available online at [www.sapr.mil/]