(AP) - The number of sexual assaults reported at an Ohio air base spiked in 2016, but officials say that does necessarily mean more assaults had occurred.
The Department of Defense says 30 assaults were reported to authorities at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton in 2016 compared with 17 the previous year.
Officials say the statistic only indicates how many reports were received and may include assaults that happened off-base or even before the victim joined the military.
Wright-Patterson spokeswoman Marie Vanover tells the Dayton Daily News that makes it impossible to identify significant trends in the increase.
Don Christensen, a retired Air Force chief prosecutor and head of the group Protect Our Defenders, says the "vast majority" of assaults occur at or near the installation where they are first reported.
