The U.S. military has a serious problem: sexual assault.

It is a problem that many politicians and military personnel refuse to acknowledge, but it now very clear that that must change. People must begin to take this issue seriously and develop effective ways to solve the problem.

In 2012, more than 26,000 sexual assaults took place in the military, but only 3, 374 were officially reported and of those, only 302 cases went to trial.

The reasons so few cases get reported and tried are heavily debated, but some attribute the low numbers to potential retaliation towards victims as well as fear among victims that their careers will be harmed as an effect.

Victims have also stated that they worry that their stories will be dismissed as false because many of the attackers have ranks higher than their own.

When a victim of an unwanted sexual encounter wishes to report a sexual assault, they go to their commanding officer. In many cases, the attacker is the commanding officer or a friend of the commanding officer or another well-respected member of the unit, so the officer may decide not to officially report the alleged assault.

Another conflict of interest is that assaults make the commander look like he/she is not effectively controlling troops, so he/she chooses to sweep the incidents under the rug.

Similarly, if both the victim and the alleged attacker are in the same unit, the commanding officer may have personal bias towards one side, influencing their decision on whether to report the incident.

Although certain reforms did take place in 2013, such as revoking the ability of a commander to dismiss court-martial findings in sexual assault cases, many more things must change in the status quo.

Advocates of change want military sexual assault prosecution to be removed from the chain of command and more protection to victims who choose to report their assaults.

Advocates of the status quo claim that crimes committed within the military need to stay in the military and that the number of supposed sexual assaults is far higher than what is really happening, but this viewpoint refuses to acknowledge that the current system does not do enough to protect victims and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.

Also, the people who are advocating sexual assault reforms in the military are in no way saying that every reported sexual assault is legitimate, but with 26,000 anonymously reported in 2012, if even a small percentage of those cases are real assaults, it just adds to the argument that something has got to change.

Overall, moves are being made in the right direction for solving the massive sexual assault problem in the military, but Congress needs to step up the pace on passing more legislation to help victims and ensure that they get the justice they deserve.