By the Family Violence Prevention Fund.. During the past year, the Defense Department has campaigned to encourage victims of sexual assault to come forward, and officials said they think that effort led to the increase.. Since 2005, the military has tried to overcome victims' reluctance by creating two categories of reporting. "Unrestricted" cases are reported to the victim's superiors and an investigation is launched. In "restricted" cases, the victim's commanders aren't notified and there's no further investigation, but the victim gets treatment.. Both categories rose in 2009, the Pentagon's report showed - with restricted reports numbering 837 in 2009, compared with 753 in 2008. Unrestricted reports rose to 2,516 from 2,256.. Of the unrestricted reports, 2,061 involved men assaulting women, up more than 10 percent from 1,864 in 2008.. The number of men reporting assaults by other men also rose, to 173 in 2009 from 123 in 2008, a 40 percent increase. There was a single report of a woman being assaulted by a woman; there was none in 2008.. In 2008, there were two reports of men being assaulted by women; in 2009, there were 13.
