Allen J. Beck, Ph.D., Bureau of Justice Statistics

May 8, 2014    NCJ 245694

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79) requires the Attorney General to submit to Congress, not later than June 30 of each year, a report on the activities of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) for the preceding calendar year. This document fulfills this requirement. During 2013 and the first 4 months of 2014, BJS issued four reports: In May 2013, BJS published estimates of sexual victimization based on reports by inmates in adult prisons and jails; in June 2013, BJS published estimates of sexual victimization based on reports of youth held in juvenile facilities; and in January 2014, BJS issued two reports analyzing administrative records of sexual victimization in adult correctional facilities based on the Survey of Sexual Violence (SSV). In addition, BJS began further analysis of the past inmate self-report surveys to provide a fuller understanding of facility- and individual-level predictors of sexual victimization.

Highlights:

• Administrators of adult correctional facilities reported 8,763 allegations of sexual victimization in 2011, a statistically significant increase over the 8,404 allegations reported in 2010 and 7,855 in 2009. See Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2009–11.
• The number of allegations has risen since 2005, largely due to increases in prisons, where allegations increased from 4,791 allegations to 6,660 in 2011 (up 39%). See Survey of Sexual Violence in Adult Correctional Facilities, 2009–11 - Statistical Tables.
• About 52% of substantiated incidents of sexual victimization in 2011 involved only inmates, while 48% of substantiated incidents involved staff with inmates.
• Among the estimated 1,390 youth who reported victimization by staff, 89.1% were males reporting sexual activity with female staff, and 3.0% were males reporting sexual activity with both male and female staff. In comparison, males comprised 91% of adjudicated youth in the survey, and female staff accounted for 44% of staff in the sampled facilities. See Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2012.
• In 2011–12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months. See Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011–12.

Part of the PREA Publications Series

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