Pentagon again delays release of sex assault study, likening report to an untested weapon

Tom Vanden Brook | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon again delayed release of a report ranking the risk of sexual assault at more than 200 military installations, comparing the study to unleashing an untested weapon system, according to interviews and documents obtained by USA TODAY.

The release of the study, rescheduled for September, could spark concerns among troops and their families, particularly those stationed at bases where RAND Corp. research determined they face the highest risk of suffering sexual assault.

The report's rankings will be of particular interest to the tens of thousands of recruits who join the military each year and their families. It could raise questions about what choice, if any, they have in declining assignment to a post with a higher risk of assault and what liability the military has for a recruit assaulted at such a base.

The Pentagon received an updated draft of the study on July 24, four days after USA TODAY reported that Defense Department officials were reluctant to release it. RAND stood by its findings. The only changes being made to it now are to communicate its conclusions better, according to Jeffrey Hiday, a RAND spokesman.

The report required “additional steps” by RAND to explain its “approach and conclusions,” Stephanie Barna, the top personnel official at the Pentagon, wrote in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

Barna wrote that the Pentagon has been working with RAND to "resolve questions about the study's methods and outcomes."

She went on to compare the report to an untested weapon system.

“Just as (the Department of Defense) would not field a weapon system without knowing its strengths, limitations and functionality, we must be certain of the strengths, limitations and functionality of the new risk estimation analysis fielded in the RAND report,” Barna wrote.

RAND disputed any contention that its approach to the study was flawed.

"We’re confident we utilized the best scientific methodology to analyze the available data and stand behind both the soundness of our analysis and our findings," Hiday said.

The RAND Corp. study was commissioned by the Pentagon in July 2016 to study risk of sexual assault. The aim has been to review data on sexual assault and harassment in 2014 to determine how they affect risk of assault at individual bases.

RAND agreed to create supplemental products to help clarify the results while maintaining the integrity of its original methods and results, Air Force Maj. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

Those products include detailed findings for each installation, Hiday said.

"The revisions have not changed the estimates themselves or the statistical methods used to create them, nor has the feedback from (the Department of Defense) suggested any specific problems with regard to these methods," Hiday said.

Barna told Gillibrand, who along with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has called for the release of the report, that the Pentagon is preparing for its release.

Commanders at bases with the highest risk of assault can be expected to face questions from troops, families and the media about problems at their facility and what's being done to address them.

In its latest survey through September 2017, the Pentagon reported a 9.7 percent increase in reports of sexual assault among troops. There were 6,769 reports of sexual assault in fiscal year 2017 compared with 6,172 reports made in 2016.

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