Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
While major changes are needed in how the military handles sexual assault, changing how they study how many sexual assaults occur is ... maybe not the way to go. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence that we'll get a good sense, moving forward, of how reforms passed by Congress are working. But that's the plan. Darren Samuelsohn reports that the Defense Department will be
switching its biennial study of sexual assaults and other gender issues from being conducted by the Defense Manpower Data Center, which has done it since 1988, to the RAND Corp. And Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is concerned:
“Changes to methodology, definitions or survey questions will preclude comparison to previous years, hiding any progress the Armed Forces may have made,” Gillibrand said in her letter to Jessica Wright, the acting defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness.
Gillibrand also said she had “particular concern” with a possible change in the survey’s definition of unwanted sexual contact away from the layman terms and other descriptions that DOD lawyers had previously approved. “Altering this core definition will make it impossible to determine whether the data accurately reflects the impact of the new policies and procedures instituted by the Armed Forces,” she wrote.
There's always the possibility this is being done for solid reasons. But boy, is it questionable that, under fire for how many sexual assaults there are in its ranks, the military is changing how it counts sexual assaults. Congress will need to take a close, close look at what RAND does and what numbers it finds.