Letter to the Hon. James N. Mattis, Secretary of Defense - Immediately Publish This Crucial Information And Take Military's Sexual Assault Problem More Seriously

Letter

Dear Secretary Mattis,

We are writing with regards to the report from USA Today that the Department of Defense has not released a report by the RAND Corporation that assesses risk of sexual assault by installation based on Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 data. We request that the report be released immediately.

The inclusion of the RAND Corporation, a federally funded research center, in the development and implementation of the Department's Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Office reports starting in FY2014 provides the opportunity for a deeper analysis of the data that is collected about sexual assault in the military. We should take advantage of the fact that RAND chose to take this additional step of using the data to assess risk of sexual assault by military installation to provide more information to service members and their families as well as to help the services better deal with this scourge at the installation level.

Transparency and accountability are critical in addressing the continued challenge of sexual assault in the military. Since this type of information is available, the Department should be not only release it, but also use it to better understand what it can do at the installation level to be more effective in preventing and responding to sexual assault.

Sincerely,

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