Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) : Research, BJS

Sexual Victimization in Local Jails Reported by Inmates, 2007

CC Pro — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:13:00 GMT

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has published a report on sexual victimization in local jails. The data for the 2007 National Inmate Survey (NIS) was collected from a sample of 40,419 inmates between April and December, and surveyed 282 local jails.

Highlights:

About 1.6% of inmates (12,100, nationwide) reported an incident involving another inmate, and 2.0% (15,200) reported an incident involving staff.
Inmate-on-inmate victimization occurred most often in the victim's cell (56%); staff-on-inmate victimization occurred in a closet, office, or other locked room (47%).
An estimated 5.1% of female inmates, compared to 2.9% of male inmates, said they had experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization.

This data was collected as required by the the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L.-108-79).

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Studies

Web Services Manager — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:59:00 GMT

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is analyzing the incidence and effects of prison rape. This research focuses on both adult and juvenile corrections facilities and both prisons and jails.

BJS has completed studies to establish baseline data on inmate sexual assaults reported to correctional agencies.

In the fall of 2005, BJS began pretesting the ACASI (Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviews) system for conducting surveys of former inmates.

Contacts at the Bureau of Justice Statistics include:

Paige Harrison, Statistician, BJS
(202) 514-0809
paige.harrison@usdoj.gov.