Most state and federal prisons use a single risk-focused classification system to assign female and male inmates to an appropriate security level. Evidence indicates that women pose very little risk to institutional or community security, and that many factors that predict risk in men are invalid predictors of risk in women. Current systems have led to excessive use of overrides in the classification of female inmates. Findings regarding the needs of female offenders for adjustment to prison and for reintegration into the community are clear and consistent. It is recommended that a greater focus be placed on needs-based classification for incarcerated women.
Rape in today's civil armed conflicts is particularly widespread and brutal, constituting what I refer to as extreme war rape, in which perpetrators intentionally injure and psychologically torture their victims. Using prior research as the data source, this article examines war rape in ongoing or recently-ended armed conflicts in 27 countries. Findings indicate that extreme war rape is ubiquitous and that across countries, there are similarities in its perpetration as well as in the contextual conditions that facilitate it. Based upon data that also show some variations in war rape prevalence and in the prominence of certain features, e.g., most common perpetrators or rape sites, I introduce four patterns of war rape, along with the distribution of conditions that differentiate them from one another.Keywords Rape Á Gender-based violence Á Civil armed conflicts Á Women and war I was hiding in the bush with my parents and two older women when the RUF [rebels] found our hiding place…and the RUF accused me of having an army husband. I was still a virgin. There were ten rebels, including four child soldiers, armed with two [rocket-propelled grenades] and AK-47s… My mother pleaded with them… Then they told me to undress. I was raped by ten rebels, one after the other. They lined up, waiting for their turn and watched while I was being raped vaginally and in my anus… The rebels threatened to kill me if I cried (R.T.). [34, p. 4]
Findings from police reports and interviews with women who have survived an attempted domestic homicide revealed patterns in their experiences and sources of distress. The build-up in the year prior to the near-lethal attack involved tension from ongoing contact with an angry, controlling batterer. Most typically the perpetrator was an alcoholic or drug addict, a gun owner, and, if his victim had left him, her stalker. In the majority of cases, the victim had either left or announced that she was leaving the relationship. While he had often threatened her life and she feared him, she typically did not think him capable of killing her. She described the attack as shocking and terrifying, and she felt certain she was going to die. In the immediate aftermath, she received some support, but as time went by, she felt isolated and alone. Ultimately, the women became convinced that they must rely on their "inner strength" to get on with their lives.
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