'Every American should be outraged:' Military sees sharp increase in sex assault cases

By Rebecca Ruiz, NBC News contributor

Despite efforts to create a "military culture free of sexual assault," the Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the number of cases increased sharply in the last year, a trend that critics pointed to as proof that more aggressive measures are needed to end the epidemic.?

The annual report, released by the DoD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, found that?3,374 incidents of "unwanted sexual contact" occurred within all branches of the Armed Forces in the 2012 fiscal year. That is a 6 percent increase from the previous year, when there were 3,192 reports.

The results of an anonymous survey, however, present a much more alarming picture: 26,000 respondents said they had been sexually assaulted in the past year, compared to 19,000 respondents in last year's survey.?

Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., was briefed by Pentagon officials on the report earlier today and told NBC News that the increase appears to represent an actual rise in the number of assaults rather than a growing willingness to report cases anonymously.?

The figures were released a day after the announcement that Air Force Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski had been removed from his position as branch chief for the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office after being charged with sexual battery. A?drunken Krusinski allegedly approached the woman in a parking lot in Arlington, Va., and grabbed her breasts and buttocks, according to a police report.

Tsongas said she was "astonished and outraged" upon hearing of?Krusinski's arrest.?

The report released Tuesday, Tsongas said, indicated that though "we've put many more tools in the toolbox ... it's clear to me there's much more work to be done" in changing the military's culture with regard to sexual assault.?

"Every American should be outraged by the disturbing numbers from this year's Defense Department sexual assault report," Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Washington, D.C., advocacy organization Service Women's Action Network, said in a statement to NBC News.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel condemned the trend in the report, calling sexual assault a "crime that is incompatible with military service."?

President Barack Obama, who spoke with Hagel on Tuesday, said he has "no tolerance" for sexual assault in the military.

"I expect consequences," Obama added. "So I don?t just want more speeches or awareness programs or training, but ultimately folks look the other way. If we find out somebody?s engaging in this, they?ve got to be held accountable ? prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period."

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