The Defense Department stated that it believed releasing the study could provoke concerns among military members and their families, especially those who are deployed at stations with the high risk of sexual assaults, USA Today reported.
On July 24, the RAND Corporation provided a draft of the study they conducted to the US Defense Department, which then decided not to publish the document.
The RAND Cooperation said it stands by the conclusions of the study, but it made several changes to the final version of the document. The revised study along with supplemental documentation to clarify its results was received by the Defense Department in July 2016.
The media report did not reveal the findings of the research, but noted the results of the latest Defense Department survey that revealed sexual assaults among US troops increased by nearly 10 percent in 2017.