ARLINGTON, Va. — Military criminal investigators collected 1,275 reports of sexual assault in which servicemembers were victims last year, almost 300 more reports than were gathered in 2003, according to a report just released by the Defense Department.

In 2004, military criminal investigators received 1,700 allegations of sexual assault involving members of the armed forces worldwide, including 1,275 incidents in which a servicemember claimed to be a victim and 1,305 incidents that involved a servicemember as an alleged offender, according to the report.

In 2002, the military services recorded a total of 901 allegations of sexual assault, according to Army Lt. Col. Joe Richard, a Pentagon spokesman.

In 2003, the department recorded a total of 1,012 allegations, Richard told Stripes on Friday.

However, Richard said, “We’re not shocked at what appears to be, on the surface, an increase” in reported sexual assault cases in 2004.

The reason officials are not surprised, Richard said, is that the new report includes allegations of not only military-on-military assault, but also civilian-on-military assault.

Moreover, Richard said, until last year, the Pentagon had no standardized definition of sexual assault and the services were not required to report such data to any oversight office.

Both of those elements, Richard said, were remedied with the 2004 creation of a Joint Task Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, which is headed by Air Force Brig. Gen. K.C. McClain.

DOD now defines sexual assault as “intentional sexual contact, characterized by use of force, physical threat or abuse of authority, or when the victim does not or cannot consent.

“Sexual assault includes rape, nonconsensual sodomy, indecent assault, and attempts to commit such acts,” according to the executive summary of the report.

Sodomy is oral and anal sex, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Pentagon officials have also been “trying to create an atmosphere [where] victims of sexual assault will come forward,” Richard said.

With a standard definition, a reporting requirement, and encouragement by DOD officials of victims to come forward, “we expected the numbers to spike” in this, the first annual DOD-wide report of sexual assault allegations, Richard said.

With “a comprehensive baseline in place, we’ll be able to make a determination if there is a legitimate increase in sexual assault over the coming years,” Richard said. “We’ll be able to evaluate the trend lines.”