Study Finds Sexual Abuse in Juvenile Detention Not Uncommon
Posted by Trevor Reid on January 8, 2010
On Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice announced findings that more than 3,200 incarcerated juveniles, 12 percent, had been raped or sexually abused while in detention during the past twelve months. This figure included assaults by one inmate against another as well as any sexual activity between detention staff and detained juveniles. The survey sampled about 9,000 of the country’s 26,550 young people in prisons.
Westat, a company in Rockville, Maryland conducted the anonymous survey under contract to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
In some facilities in Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas nealry a third of juvenile inmates reported being sexually abused.