The New York Times reports that “reporting of rape and other sexual assaults in the military is up significantly — 50 percent — reflecting increased confidence among victims that recent steps by military leaders mean the Pentagon is taking these cases seriously, according to a United States official briefed on a long-awaited Pentagon report that will be released on Thursday.”  

“But even before the report is made public, critics of the military’s handling of sexual abuse cases were expressing skepticism over its methodology and questioning why the Pentagon has outsourced next year’s report to a different company, which would probably use different methodology and make it more difficult to assess year by year comparisons.”  

“In a letter to the Defense Department last week, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said she was concerned about reports of a possible change in the survey’s definition of unwanted sexual contact, which, she warned, ‘will make it impossible to determine whether the data accurately reflects the impact of the policies and procedures instituted by the Armed Forces.’”