Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2016-18

• NCJ Number: 255356
• Author(s): Emily D. Buehler
• Date Published: June 2021
• Length: 27 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

This BJS report presents counts and rates of allegations of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate sexual victimization across all types of adult correctional facilities. 

Abstract

This BJS report presents counts and rates of allegations of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate sexual victimization across all types of adult correctional facilities. The report defines five types of victimization that were determined by the characteristics of the incident and perpetrator. Correctional administrators provided counts of allegations by the outcomes of investigations.

Highlights of this report include:

• Correctional administrators reported 27,826 allegations of sexual victimization in 2018, a 14% increase from the 24,514 reported in 2015.
• Of the 1,673 substantiated incidents of sexual victimization in 2018, about 58% were perpetrated by other inmates and 42% by staff.
• During 2016-18, 3,579 allegations of inmate-on-inmate sexual harassment were substantiated, compared to 2,646 substantiated allegations of other types of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization.
• In investigations completed during 2016-18, 55% of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimizations and 47% of alleged staff-on-inmate sexual victimizations were not substantiated.