In October 2004, Congress included a provision in the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 that required the Secretary of Defense to develop a comprehensive policy for DOD on the prevention of and response to sexual assaults involving members of the Armed Forces. The legislation required that the policy be based on the recommendations of the Defense Task Force on Care for Victims of Sexual Assaults and on other matters as the Secretary deemed appropriate. Among other things, the legislation requires the Secretary to establish a standardized departmentwide definition of sexual assault, and to develop a policy, using the standardized definition, to address a number of issues, including the confidential reporting of sexual assault incidents and the uniform collection of data on the incidence of sexual assault. The law also requires DOD to submit an annual report to Congress on reported sexual assault incidents involving members of the Armed Forces. In October 2005, DOD issued DOD Directive 6495.01, which contains its policy for the prevention of and response to sexual assault. In June 2006, DOD issued DOD Instruction 6495.02, which provides guidance for implementing this policy. DOD’s directive defines sexual assault as follows: “intentional sexual contact, characterized by use of force, threats, intimidation, abuse of authority, or when the victim does not or cannot consent. Sexual assault includes rape, forcible sodomy (oral or anal sex), and other unwanted sexual contact that is aggravated, abusive or wrongful (to include unwanted and inappropriate sexual contact), or attempts to commit these acts. “Consent” means words or overt acts indicating a freely given agreement to the sexual conduct at issue by a competent person. An expression of lack of consent through words or conduct means there is no consent. Lack of verbal or physical resistance or submission resulting from the accused’s use of force, threat of force, or placing another person in fear does not constitute consent. A current or previous dating relationship by itself or the manner of dress of the person involved with the accused in the sexual conduct at issue shall not constitute consent.” In October 2008, Congress passed the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, which includes a provision requiring the Secretary of Defense to implement a centralized, case-level database for the collection and maintenance of information regarding sexual assaults involving members of the Armed Forces. The law specifies that the database include information, if available, about the nature of the assault, the victim, the offender, and the outcome of any legal proceedings associated with the assault, and requires DOD to implement the database by January 2010—which is 15 months from the day of its enactment. In OSD, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness has the responsibility for developing the overall policy and guidance for the department’s sexual assault prevention and response program. Under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, OSD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (within the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Plans) serves as the department’s single point of responsibility for sexual assault policy matters. These responsibilities include providing the military services with guidance and technical support and facilitating the identification and resolution of issues; developing programs, policies, and training standards for the prevention of, reporting of, and response to sexual assault; developing strategic program guidance and joint planning objectives; overseeing the department’s collection and maintenance of data on reported alleged sexual assaults involving servicemembers; establishing mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of the department’s sexual assault prevention and response program; and preparing the department’s annual report to Congress. The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Plans has the responsibility for programming, budgeting, and allocating funds and other resources for the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. Each military service has established a sexual assault prevention and response office with responsibility for overseeing and managing its sexual assault matters. Further, DOD’s instruction requires the military services to establish Sexual Assault Response Coordinator positions and states that at the services discretion, these positions may be staffed by members of the military, civilian employees, or DOD contractors. Sexual Assault Response Coordinators are generally responsible for implementing their respective services’ sexual assault prevention and response programs, including coordinating the response to and reporting of sexual assault incidents. Other responders include victim advocates, judge advocates, medical and mental health providers, criminal investigative personnel, law enforcement personnel, and chaplains. The Coast Guard has had a sexual assault prevention and response program in place since 1997, and in December 2007, the Coast Guard updated its instruction to generally mirror DOD’s policy. According to Coast Guard officials, in January 2009, they revised their instruction to incorporate what officials have stated is a more comprehensive definition of the term “sexual assault,” modify titles of certain program personnel to better reflect their responsibility, and clarify processes for reporting a sexual assault. The Coast Guard’s Office of Work-Life (within the Health, Safety, and Work-Life Directorate, which is under the Office of the Assistant Commandant for Human Resources) is responsible for overseeing and managing sexual assault matters. At the installation level, the Coast Guard has established Employee Assistance Program Coordinators to manage the response to and reporting of sexual assault incidents. Like DOD’s, the Coast Guard’s sexual assault prevention and response program utilizes other responders to manage sexual assault incidents, including victim advocates, judge advocates, medical and mental health providers, criminal investigative personnel, law enforcement personnel, and chaplains. In August 2008, we issued a report containing nine recommendations to DOD and two recommendations to the Coast Guard to improve program implementation. With respect to DOD, we recommended that the Secretary of Defense take the following actions: Review and evaluate the department’s policies for the prevention of and response to sexual assault to ensure that adequate guidance is provided to effectively implement the program in deployed environments and joint environments. Direct the military service secretaries to emphasize to all levels of command their responsibility for supporting the program, and review the extent to which commanders support the program and resources are available to raise servicemembers’ awareness of sexual assault matters. Systematically evaluate and develop an action plan to address any factors that may prevent or discourage servicemembers from accessing health services following a sexual assault. Direct the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services to begin its examination immediately, now that all members of the task force have been appointed, and to develop a detailed plan with milestones to guide its work. Require the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office to develop an oversight framework to guide continued program implementation and to evaluate program effectiveness. At a minimum, such a framework should contain long-term goals, objectives, and milestones; performance goals; strategies to be used to accomplish goals; and criteria for measuring progress. Review and evaluate sexual assault prevention and response training to ensure that the military services are meeting training requirements and to enhance the effectiveness of the training. Evaluate the military services’ processes for staffing and designating key installation-level program positions—such as coordinators—at installations in the United States and overseas, to ensure that these individuals have the ability and resources to fully carry out their responsibilities. Direct the military service secretaries to provide installation-level incident data to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office annually or as requested to facilitate the analysis of sexual assault- related data and to better target resources over time. Improve the usefulness of the department’s annual report as an oversight tool both internally and for congressional decision makers by establishing baseline data to permit the analysis of data over time and to distinguish cases in which (1) evidence was insufficient to substantiate an alleged assault, (2) a victim recanted, or (3) the allegations of sexual assault were unfounded. With respect to the Coast Guard, we recommended that the Commandant of the Coast Guard take the following actions: Evaluate the Coast Guard’s processes for staffing key installation-level program positions—such as coordinators—to ensure that these individuals have the ability and resources to fully carry out their responsibilities. Develop an oversight framework to guide continued program implementation and to evaluate program effectiveness. At a minimum, such a framework should contain long-term goals, objectives, and milestones; performance goals; strategies to be used to accomplish goals; and criteria for measuring progress. We also suggested as a matter for congressional consideration that the Coast Guard be required to annually submit to Congress sexual assault incident and program data that are methodologically comparable to those required of DOD. In commenting on a draft of that report, both DOD and the Coast Guard concurred with all of our recommendations. DOD has made varying levels of progress in implementing our recommendations from 2008 to improve its sexual assault prevention and response programs. To its credit, DOD has implemented four of the nine recommendations in our August 2008 report. However, DOD’s efforts toward implementing the other five recommendations reflect less progress, which is likely to hinder the effectiveness of DOD’s efforts to oversee its programs. During fiscal years 2008 and 2009, DOD implemented four of the recommendations in our August 2008 report on DOD and Coast Guard sexual assault prevention and response programs. First, OSD established a working group to address our recommendation to review and evaluate the adequacy of DOD policies for implementing its sexual assault prevention and response program in joint and deployed environments. Based on the working group’s findings, OSD submitted a memorandum to the Joint Staff in April 2009 detailing its suggested revisions to joint policy, which a Joint Staff official told us they are using to modify related publications. Additionally, according to a Joint Staff official, the Joint Staff has issued interim guidance to support the implementation of sexual assault prevention and response programs in joint and deployed environments until the new joint publications are approved. Second, the military service secretaries have taken a variety of steps to address our recommendation to emphasize responsibility for program support to all levels of command.