[kr0bat]

So that's 74,000 assaults against a population of 1,328,000[1]. So about 5.57% of the armed forces were assaulted sexually in one year.

But the United States as a whole had a reported ≈325k[2] sexual assaults in 2021. That's 0.09% of the population.

Are you really over 60 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in the military than in the general public? And are over a fifth of sexual assaults in America happening between military personnel? Somebody please tell me what I'm missing because I must be making a serious logical mistake.

[1] https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11994

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/642458/rape-and-sexual-a...

[sxp]

One common stat that is used is "1 in 5 women are SA'd in college". Assuming a 4-year college, that means 1-((1-.2)^.25) = 5.5% of women in college are SA'd each year. So the rates are somewhat similar to a rough approximation with some coarse assumptions about demographics.

[pstrateman]

The composition of the US military and the general public are different.

You would need to identify the rate among an equivalent population that isn't military.

[Kinrany]

Why is this surprising?

[arcticbull]

It looks like the Statista data comes from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which is available here. [1] Note that in 2022 the number rose to 531K, or 0.31% of women.

[1] https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/cv22.pdf

[trhway]

>Somebody please tell me what I'm missing because I must be making a serious logical mistake.

authority (and corresponding victim helplessness and defenselessness) breeds sexual assault and harassment. Military is by far among the most authoritarian institutions (only prison probably beats it by a thin margin).

[zephrx1111]

Did you consider the age distribution difference of military and gen pop?

[zsabra]

Did you consider the gender demographics? The assaults refer to assaults on women and I doubt that women/men ratio is 50/50ish as in the general public.

[throwaway984393]

It's well established that sexual assault is under-reported in the US general population

[arcticbull]

Under-reported to police yes, but this data comes from NCVS which is generally regarded to be more accurate. You can learn more about their methodology here. [1]

[1] https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/ncvs#0-0