The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was designed to eliminate from corrections systems all acts of sexual violence. PREA’s success will be determined by whether corrections staff and incarcerated persons support this law, understand its legal elements, and are enforcing it according to it’s original intentions. To date, few studies have examined whether members of both populations do indeed support PREA, and whether they are enforcing it correctly. To explore these issues, questionnaire data were collected from corrections staff ( N = 222) and incarcerated persons ( N = 490) housed in three medium-level security prisons located in the southeastern United States. While both groups expressed personal support for PREA, neither perceived the other as supportive of this law. Moreover, while an overwhelming majority of each sample responded correctly to questions about PREA, there were some incorrect answers too, specifically with regard to mandatory reporting procedures. Policy implications are discussed.
Our research examines the possible association of sexual orientation and self-reported sexual harassment, sexual assault, intimate partner psychological abuse, and intimate partner physical abuse of college students from a northeastern university in the United States. Understanding the prevalence of these behaviors within this age group is important, as developing appropriate college policy to reduce these actions at this time may be beneficial for future prevention. This study also allows for one of the few true comparisons between those students who identified as sexual minority and non-sexual minority college students 1 . A total of 1881 college students were surveyed. Classes were randomly selected and surveys were administered to students in those classes. Gender specific models were also analyzed to examine if the relationship between sexual orientation and victimization differs for males and females. The results from the analyses support the prediction that sexual minority students were more likely to report all four types of victimization than non-sexual minority students. Sexual minority students were about four times more likely to report sexual assault, two times more likely to report sexual harassment and physical abuse, and about 1.5 times more likely to report psychological abuse. Sexual minority males were more likely to report sexual assault (nine times), sexual harassment (3.5 times), and physical abuse (twice as likely). Sexual minority females were about twice as likely to report sexual assault, physical abuse, and psychological abuse.
The normalization of deviance in the form of prison rape finds common themes in media, rape myths, and common discourse. However, these portrayals fail to include real world policies and the perspectives of incarcerated populations. As such, the normalization of deviance is assessed in the context of the implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). A thematic analysis was conducted using qualitative survey responses from 407 males incarcerated in three medium-level security state prisons in the Southern United States. Surprisingly, respondents rejected stereotypical notions of sexuality (institutional deviancy) and snitching (cultural deviancy) surrounding prison rape. Rather, respondents favored standardized safety procedures and institutional responses designed to reduced risk, while also endorsing views that traditional snitching codes were not applicable to prison rape. This study provides implications for researchers and practitioners, particularly in the context of the implementation of PREA.
This study uses cluster analysis to develop a classification of sexually aggressive juveniles, based on demographic information, offense details, psychological and behavioral issues, and participation in treatment. Data were collected from two treatment programs (n = 95) that serve this population. Four distinct types were found: sexually aggressive (those who were otherwise nondelinquent), revenge (those who were mostly nondelinquent but specifically targeted step- and half-siblings), disturbed revenge (those who offended against half- and stepsiblings, and demonstrated more significant behavioral and psychological disturbances) , and disturbed aggressive (overall antisocial individuals who displayed problems with psychological issues and violent behaviors). The results suggest that sexually aggressive juveniles are a heterogeneous population that, while sharing some similarities with their adult counterparts, are different in many ways, and early treatment interventions may help reduce the risk of adult offending.
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