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Details: Findings from U.S. military bases in Japan

February 10, 2014 at 12:40AM

ADVANCE FOR MONDAY, FEB. 9 AND THEREAFTER - This photo taken Jan. 21, 2014 shows Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., chair of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Personnel, discussing her proposed reforms for prosecuting sexual assaults in the military, during an interview with The Associated Press in her Capitol Hill office in Washington. An Associated Press investigation into the militaryís handling of sexual assaults in Japan has found a pattern of random and inconsistent judgments in which most offenders are not incarcerated. Instead, commanders have ordered ìnonjudicial punishmentsî that ranged from docked pay to a letter of reprimand. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Some findings from 2005-2013

The Marines were far more likely than other branches to send offenders to prison, with 53 prison sentences out of 270 cases. By contrast, of the Navy's 203 cases, more than 70 were court-martialed or punished in some way. Only 15 were sentenced to time behind bars.

The Air Force was the most lenient. Of 124 sex crimes, the only punishment for 21 offenders was a letter of reprimand.

Victims increasingly declined to cooperate with investigators or recanted, a sign they may have been losing confidence in the system. In 2006, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which handles the Navy and Marine Corps, reported 13 such cases; in 2012, it was 28.

Of 244 service members whose punishments were detailed in the records, only a third of them were incarcerated.

Associated Press