Chiarelli said factors driving the increase in sex crimes were alcohol use and new barracks that offered more privacy. He said it was also possible that the reporting of the offenses had increased.
Chiarelli said that 164 active-duty Army, National Guard, and reserve forces took their own lives in 2011, compared with 159 in 2010 and 162 in 2009. The increase occurred even as the Army expanded suicide-prevention efforts and substance counseling.
Asked if he was frustrated by the jump last year in suicide by active-duty soldiers, Chiarelli said no.
"The question you have to ask yourself, and this is the number that no one can prove, what would it have been if we had not focused the efforts that we focused on it?" he said. He said that "for all practical purposes, for the last two to three years, it has leveled off."
Chiarelli held the news conference to release a report, "Generating Health & Discipline in the Force," a review of the overall health of the Army after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest period of conflict in the nation's history. The report, printed well before Thursday, did not include the final number of 164 suicides among active-duty soldiers for 2011. Chiarelli disclosed that statistic at the news conference, as well as the number of suicides among active-duty troops from 2008 to 2010.
Chiarelli said that if nonmobilized National Guard and reserve units are included, Army suicides dropped to 278 in 2011, from 305 in 2010.
The rise in suicides has long been attributed to the stress of repeated deployments. But officials say there are many other factors, including alcohol abuse and a lowering of recruiting standards several years ago.
