Transcript for: DOD’s and U.S. Coast Guard’s Efforts to Prevent Sexual Assault In The Military Description: Sexual assault is a heinous crime that can have a lasting, harmful effect on victims. But when it occurs among the ranks of military service members, it can have the additional effect of undermining the military's ability to carry out its missions. Congress has directed the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard to improve its efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assault incidents. We find out more about the status of these efforts from GAO’s Brenda Farrell. Related GAO Work: GAO-22-103973, Sexual Assault: DOD and Coast Guard Should Ensure Laws Are Implemented to Improve Oversight of Key Prevention and Response Efforts Released: March 2022 [Brenda Farrell:] An estimated 20,500 male and female service members reported in 2018 having been sexually assaulted [Holly Hobbs:] Hi and welcome to GAO’s watchdog report—your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm your host, Holly Hobbs. Sexual assault is a heinous crime that can have a lasting, harmful effect on victims. But when it occurs among the ranks of military service members, it can have the additional effect of undermining the military's ability to carry out its missions. Congress has directed the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard to improve its efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assault incidents. Today, we'll find out more from Brenda Farrell, a director in her Defense Capabilities and Management team, who has a new report out about these efforts. Thanks for joining us. [Brenda Farrell:] Thanks for having me, Holly. I appreciate the opportunity. [Holly Hobbs:] So, Brenda, in DOD and the Coast Guard, how prevalent is sexual assault? [Brenda Farrell:] DOD does estimate the prevalence of sexual assault in the military through surveys that are generalizable to the total population. And we included information from the latest available data on prevalence from those reports. According to DOD, roughly an estimated 20,500 male and female service members reported in 2018 having been sexually assaulted compared to 14,900 service members in 2016. The prevalence of sexual assault in the reserve components remained statistically unchanged from 2017 to 2019. I think it's important to note that DOD has stated that the increased prevalence of sexual assault in the military indicates it remains a persistent challenge that does not diminish easily. [Holly Hobbs:] And what about the Coast Guard? [Brenda Farrell:] The Coast Guard also experienced an increase in the prevalence of sexual assault from 2016 to 2018. As everyone knows, that Coast Guard is much smaller than the Department of Defense. But about 184 reported in 2018 having been sexually assaulted in the prior 12 months, which was a statistically significant increase from 2% in 2016. [Holly Hobbs:] So given all of that, what has Congress asked the DOD and Coast Guard to do? [Brenda Farrell:] Congress has been very actively engaged to promote oversight of this area. We've identified 249 statutory requirements that address the prevention of and response to sexual assault incidents. [Holly Hobbs:] So what are these requirements? [Brenda Farrell:] We found that the 249 requirements covered four broad categories. The first category, the largest, was victims’ assistance and advocacy. That comprised over a third of these requirements. The second category was management and oversight. Management and oversight includes things such as policy planning, data collection, reporting. And then the third category are the activities related to investigation, disposition of the cases and the legal process for these incidents. The smallest category was prevention. Prevention efforts, comprised about 9% of the total requirements. Prevention includes organizational culture, the leadership, as well as the training for service members or those associated with the program. [Holly Hobbs:] And, so how many of these requirements has the DOD implemented so far? [Brenda Farrell:] Most of them. DOD’s implemented around 82%. And the ones that they implemented address things such as establishing comprehensive policies for roles, responsibilities, reporting—things of that nature. They’ve developed training, for example, for forensic examiners. However, DOD did not establish a required evaluation plan to assess their policies and activities for this area. So they do not know what's effective or what's not effective. Another example that needs some more attention from DOD is that the commanders aren't always being held accountable for some of their responsibilities. [Holly Hobbs:] And what about the Coast Guard? How many requirements has it implemented? [Brenda Farrell:] The Coast Guard also implemented most of their requirements. They've completed 30 of 36. For example, the Coast Guard established policies for victims, who asked to be transferred. But they did not meet the requirement for the timelines to make the decisions on whether to transfer victims. Regarding the requirement is not being implemented, they did not ensure training was provided to those in the delayed entry programs, those coming in to the Coast Guard service at the very beginning. {MUSIC} [Holly Hobbs:] So, Brenda just told us that the DOD and the U.S. Coast Guard have taken action on the majority of the requirements from Congress to address sexual assault. But that they don’t know how effective their efforts have been, and that sexual assault has increased— a sign that more work is needed to prevent these crimes. So, Brenda, what could the DOD and Coast Guard do to implement the remaining requirements from Congress and improve their efforts to respond and prevent sexual assault? [Brenda Farrell:] Both DOD and the Coast Guard need to establish mechanisms to track and document that relevant laws are implemented. When we initiated our review, neither the DOD nor the Coast Guard had a list of these statutory requirements. We had to research the laws from 2004 through 2019 and identify those laws. And then we had to obtain documentation from each of the components as to the actions they had taken to implement those laws. So that's quite a bit of work. Now, DOD does have a good start with our report that provides a roadmap for the laws. And we also made 23 recommendations to help them improve their oversight in this area. However, since our analysis, Congress and the President have enacted additional statutory requirements. So they need a mechanism in place to identify, track and help ensure that these laws are being implemented. [Holly Hobbs:] And last question. What's the bottom line of this report? [Brenda Farrell:] The bottom line is that DOD and the Coast Guard both have work to do to ensure that the laws are implemented to improve oversight for prevention and response of sexual assault in the military. [Holly Hobbs:] That was Brenda Farrell talking about GAO's new report on the DOD and Coast Guard's efforts to prevent sexual assault. Thanks for your time, Brenda. [Brenda Farrell:] Thanks for having me, Holly. [Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to The Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. And make sure to leave a rating and review to let others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at GAO. gov.