Sexual Victimization Reported by Juvenile Justice Authorities, 2013-18

• NCJ Number: 300029
• Author(s): Laura M. Maruschak; Emily D. Buehler
• Date Published: June 2021
• Length: 17 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

This BJS report presents counts and rates of allegations of youth-on-youth and staff-on-youth sexual victimization in state juvenile systems and in locally or privately operated juvenile facilities.

Abstract

This BJS report presents counts and rates of allegations of youth-on-youth and staff-on-youth sexual victimization in state juvenile systems and in locally or privately operated juvenile facilities that were determined by the characteristics of the incident and perpetrator. Juvenile justice administrators provided counts of allegations by the outcomes of investigations.

Highlights of this report include:

• Juvenile justice administrators reported 2,467 allegations of sexual victimization in 2018, an 89% increase from the 1,306 reported in 2013.
• In 2018, there were 107 allegations of sexual victimization per 1,000 youth in state juvenile systems and 33.4 per 1,000 youth in local and private juvenile facilities.
• About half (52%) of allegations of sexual victimizations reported in all juvenile facilities from 2013 to 2018 were perpetrated by staff and about half (48%) by youth.
• More than half (56%) of youth-on-youth allegations reported in 2018 occurred in state juvenile systems.