response taskforce to investigate complaints from women between 1991 and 2011. it received 2,439 complaints, of which it deemed 1,751 to be plausible. a royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse was established in 2012, which investigated widespread allegations of historical abuse in the navy. the commission took evidence from 8,000 individuals and reported in 2017 that many recruits of both sexes and from the age of 15 had been repeatedly sexually abused by older recruits between 1967 and 1971, including by anal gang rape, and in some cases young recruits had been forced to rape each other. the practice was ‘tolerated’ by senior staff, according to the commission. canada royal military college saint-jean, canada, training centre for recruits from age 16 and characterised by a 'hostile environment and mistreatment of many female cadets' (arbour review) in 2014, the ombudsman of the canadian armed forces described sexual harassment in the institution as 'a huge problem'. in 2015, after widespread allegations of sexual misconduct in the military, a major official report, the external review into sexual misconduct and sexual harassment in the canadian armed forces (the deschamps review), was published. it found that sexual harassment was commonplace and embedded in military culture, and that pervasive degrading attitudes to women and lgbtq+ personnel were jeopardising their safety. the deschamps review also criticised the armed forces for a culture of dismissiveness; one male interviewee told the review, for example: "girls that come to the army know what to expect." the review stated that senior ncos are frequently seen as tolerating sexual harassment and discouraging the individuals affected from making a complaint. the canadian armed forces have since conducted major surveys of personnel in 2016 and 2018. in each instance, the following proportions of female personnel reported being personally targeted by sexualised or discriminatory behaviour in the previous 12 months: 2016: 31%. 2018: 28%. in 2022, a further major report, the arbour review, concluded that female armed forces personnel were more likely to be attacked by their peers than the enemy. higher rates of harassment have been identified in military training centres. the rate of sexual harassment of women at military colleges in canada was found in 2019 to be approximately twice (28%) that found in civilian colleges (15%). according to the arbour review, training centres are characterised by a 'hostile environment and mistreatment of many female cadets', including the collège militaire royal de saint-jean which trains new recruits from age 16. a notable case of a perpetrator is that of russell williams, a colonel in the royal canadian air force, who was charged with the sexual assault of two women in connection with two home invasions near tweed, ontario in september 2009. williams was also charged in the death of corporal marie-france comeau, a 37-year-old military traffic technician, who had been found dead at home in late november 2009. he was sentenced in 2010 to two concurrent terms of life imprisonment. france the extent of sexual harassment in the french armed forces first came to prominence in 2014 when 35 cases of harassment and assault were detailed in la guerre invisible, a book by leila minano and julia pascual. according to the independent newspaper, the armed forces had not been required to report incidents or to keep statistics, and an official report acknowledged that awareness of the problem had been institutionally suppressed. a study in 2021 found that 37% of women and 18% of men in a representative sample from the french military had experienced verbal or physical sexual harassment in the previous 12 months, and that 13% of women and 4% of men had been sexually assaulted. the incidence rates of sexual harassment and sexual assault experienced by women aged under 25 were particularly high, at 41% and 21% respectively. 22% of women of the lowest rank, who are typically those who have recently enlisted, said they had been sexually assaulted. germany in 2014, the german armed forces reported that 55% of female and 12% of male personnel had experienced sexual harassment during their career, and that 3% of women said they had been sexually assaulted or raped. norway in 2021, the armed forces research institute found that 46% of all military women, 63% of women under 30, and 73% of new female recruits had experienced sexual harassment at least once in the previous 12 months. united kingdom army foundation college, harrogate, site of 22 of 37 recorded sexual offences against girls aged under 18 in the uk armed forces in 2021. uk armed forces following concerns expressed in 2004 by the uk equal opportunities commission (now the equality and human rights commission) about persistent sexual harassment in the british armed forces, a number of anonymised, official surveys have been undertaken. the first, in 2006, found that a male-dominated culture sexualised women and diminished their military competence. among the comments made to researchers by male personnel about their female counterparts were: ‘ok there are a few exceptions but on the whole they shouldn’t be here.’; 'they're all lesbians or sluts.'; and 'they are emotionally unstable.' the report found that 15% of women had had a 'particularly upsetting' experience of sexual harassment in the previous 12 months; the proportion rose to 20% in the youngest age group. since 2009, official surveys asking the same question have found steadily rising rates of women in the army reporting particularly upsetting experiences, as follows: 2009: 8% 2015: 13% 2018: 15% 2021: 35% in 2021, the same question asked of women in the royal navy and royal air force found rates of 43% and 35%, respectively. in 2021, 37 girls aged under 18 across the british armed forces (from a total population at the time of 290) were victims of a sexual offence. 22 were new recruits at the training centre for the army's youngest recruits (aged from 16 years), the army foundation college; three of the accused in these cases were members of staff. military youth organisations in 2017, a bbc panorama documentary found multiple cases of the sexual abuse of cadets from age 11 during the 1980s. it reported that the victims and their parents were discouraged from making a formal complaint or contacting the police. in 2012 and 2013, the ministry of defence (mod) paid £2 million to settle the allegations out of court. between 2012 and 2017, the mod recorded a further 363 allegations, of which 282 were referred to the police. united states evidence photo from the official investigation into the tailhook scandal in 1991, showing an unidentified navy officer wearing a t-shirt emblazoned 'women are property'. since 2014, surveys of us military personnel have found a high prevalence of sexual harassment. the following rates refer to the proportion of women reporting that they had experienced harassment in the previous 12 months. 2014: 21.5% 2016: 21.4% 2018: 24.2% in the same years, 5–6% of servicewomen said they had been sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months; rates at initial training centres were found to be substantially higher. in 2017, the department of defense reported that an estimated 14,900 military personnel were sexually assaulted in 2016, of whom 6,172 made an official complaint. in the same year, the department reported that an active duty military woman who reported sexual harassment to a superior was 16% more likely to be sexually assaulted than one who did not report, while a man who reported increased his chance of sexual assault thereafter by 50%.