If you’re looking for historic data to go along with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s announcement today about increased efforts against sexual assault in the military, the best place to start is the annual reports the DOD is required to compile each year. Here is the archive, with the latest umbrella report from March, 2011 covering 2010, and the military academy summary released last month, covering the 2010-2011 academic year. 

It is unclear when the full 2011 report will be posted, but Panetta announced there were 3,191 sexual assault reports in 2011, up about 1% over 2010. The actual number of assaults could be as high as 19,000, because only a fraction of cases historically are actually reported, Panetta said.

Below is an example of data included in the reports. This shows 2010 sexual assault reporting rates by service branch.