An Examination of Women’s Experiences with Reporting Sexual Victimization Behind Prison Walls

Date01 November 2020
DOI10.1177/0032885520956328
AuthorApril Surrell,Ida M. Johnson
Published date01 November 2020
Subject MatterArticles
/tmp/tmp-1703CzIYsU9crx/input 956328TPJXXX10.1177/0032885520956328The Prison JournalSurrell and Johnson
research-article2020
Article
The Prison Journal
2020, Vol. 100(5) 559 –580
An Examination of
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with Reporting Sexual
Victimization Behind
Prison Walls
April Surrell1 and Ida M. Johnson1
Abstract
Women inmates in a southern women’s minimum security facility were
interviewed to explore their perceptions of and experiences with reporting
sexual victimization in the context of the post-PREA era. The interviewees
identified stigma and gossip, officer camaraderie, and fear of retaliation as
the dominant barriers to reporting and investigating incidents of sexual
assault. The article concludes with recommendations to improve sexual
assault training and education in women’s correctional institutions.
Keywords
sexual victimization, women inmates, PREA, correctional staff
Introduction
The incarceration rate of women has increased at a faster pace than the incar-
ceration rate of men. Between 1980 and 2016, the number of incarcerated
women increased from 26,378 in 1980 to 213,722 in 2016 (Carson, 2018;
Piecora, 2014).While women make up only 7% of the total U.S. adult prison
1University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
Corresponding Author:
Ida M. Johnson, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, The University of Alabama,
Box 870320, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
Email: jjohnson@ua.edu

560
The Prison Journal 100(5)
population, their incarceration rates have increased in 26 states since 2015
(Carson, 2018). The increase in the number of incarcerated women creates a
number of complex issues, including the need to enforce effective rape preven-
tive policies. Historically, sexual victimization in prison has been a daunting
and ubiquitous experience for female inmates, often fraught with detrimental
consequences (Dobash et al., 1986; Rafter, 1992). While sexual victimization
is usually bound by secrecy and silence, it is an integral part of the inmate cul-
ture (Gibbons & Katzenbach, 2011) and has become widely recognized as an
on-going problem (Nacci & Kane, 1983; Struckman-Johnson et al., 1996).
The plight of sexually victimized incarcerated women remains in the
shadow of scholarship that has focused primarily on rape culture in men’s
prisons. Research on incarcerated women’s lived experiences with sexual vic-
timization is limited, especially in the context of the Prison Rape Elimination
Act (PREA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 2003.Despite the vulnerability of
female inmates to sexual victimization by male correctional staff, government
research has almost completely focused on inmate-to-inmate sexual victim-
ization, ignoring the problematic issue of correctional staff engaging in inap-
propriate sexual behaviors with inmates, specifically female inmates
(VanNatta, 2010). Research examining the narratives of sexually victimized
women inmates is scarce despite statistical documentation of their sexual
abuse in carceral settings. This study adds to the dearth of research on sexual
victimization of incarcerated women by investigating their experiences with
reporting and investigative processes in the post-PREA era. Although PREA
legislation was passed to detect, report, investigate, and prevent incidents of
sexual misconduct in correctional facilities, prison rapes, and sexual assaults
are still problematic in many correctional institutions (Beck & Johnson, 2012;
Smith, 2020) because some institutions have not fully implemented PREA
guidelines (Anderson, 2005). It has been documented that some correctional
administrators have failed to implement PREA standards or have implemented
guidelines in an ineffective manner which limits inmates’ recourse to report-
ing sexual victimization (Beck & Johnson, 2012; Beck et al., 2007). The goal
of the research is to examine incarcerated women’s lived experiences with
sexual victimization, barriers to reporting sexual victimization, and measur-
able changes of correctional staff adherence to mandated PREA guidelines.
Literature Review
Prison Rape Elimination Act
One of the most important legal reforms in addressing sexual victimization
behind prison walls is PREA. The passage of PREA was fueled by the

Surrell and Johnson
561
disruption of institutional operations by prison rapes, the harmful effects of
prison rapes, and the unexpected demands that rape victims placed on com-
munities once released from correctional facilities. Signed into law by
President George W. Bush in 2003, PREA supports a “zero-tolerance” policy
for prison rapes and requires BJS to collect on-going data that are aimed at
detecting, reporting, and preventing prison rape. Further, the guidelines of
PREA were designed to increase the accountability of correctional officials
who fail to prevent the occurrence of prison rapes. While PREA’s standards
are binding on all correctional facilities, the implementation and pursuit of
PREA goals vary across correctional institutions. Strict penalties should be
imposed on correctional officials who violate state law and PREA guidelines
(Kubiak et al., 2017); however, despite the passage of PREA, some prisons
have remained uncooperative and indifferent to rape prevention (Anderson,
2005; U. S. Department of Justice, 2014).
Prevalence of Sexual Victimization
Sexual victimization in women’s prisons includes a myriad of behaviors
ranging from sexualized language to rape (Hensley, 2002). Incarcerated
women experience sexual victimization in the forms of sexual harassment,
molestation during strip searches, coercive sexual fondling, and pressured or
forced sexual intercourse perpetrated by prison staff (Struckman-Johnson &
Struckman-Johnson, 2006). The reporting of sexual misconduct is con-
strained by individual, institutional, and cultural factors (Kubiak et al., 2017;
Struckman-Johnson & Struckman-Johnson, 2006) and by the identity of the
perpetrator, especially if the offending party is a correctional staff member
(Kubiak et al., 2017; Miller, 2010). In incidents of staff-to-female inmate
victimization, males are the perpetrators in 98% of the cases (Piecora, 2014).
Findings on perpetrators of sexual victimization, however, reveal that incar-
cerated women report higher rates of sexual victimization than men (Beck
et al., 2007), and have been noted as more likely to be sexually victimized
by male correctional staff (Calhoun & Coleman, 2002; Kubiak et al., 2018)
In contrast, some research reveals that incarcerated women are more likely
to be sexually victimized by other inmates than correctional staff (Wolff
et al., 2009). The Survey of Sexual Victimization (SSV) conducted by BJS
(2018) revealed that 24,661 sexual victimization allegations were reported
by correctional administrators in 2015, an almost triple increase (8,768)
from 2011. Increases in sexual allegations over time can be attributed to
increases in unsubstantiated or unfounded allegations. According to the SSV
data, 58% of substantiated allegations were perpetrated by inmates, and 42%
were perpetrated by staff members. Further, a study of prison rapes in three

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The Prison Journal 100(5)
mid-western women’s prisons revealed 7% to 27% of women inmates
reported being pressured or forced into sexual acts. Further, the abuse fre-
quently involved multiple victimizations perpetrated by multiple individu-
als, including both correctional staff and female inmates (Struckman-Johnson
& Struckman-Johnson, 2006).
Barriers to Reporting Sexual Victimization in Women’s Prisons
Parallels of reporting patterns of rape and sexual assault inside and outside of
prison can often be drawn and share similar levels of resistance to sexual
victimization reporting. Female victims of sexual misconduct (both free
world and incarcerated women) often do not report the abuse because of the
perception that they will not be believed; mistrust of legal authorities; self-
blame; fear of retaliation; shame, embarrassment and fear of stigma; victim-
perpetrator relationship; and physical injury (Miller, 2010). Notably,
Incarcerated women experience unique barriers to reporting due to their sta-
tus as inmates and the repressive space in which sexual misconduct takes
place. Given the oppressive environment of prison, the authoritarian power
of correctional officials, and the women inmates’ lack of agency over their
bodies, women victims of sexual assaults in prisons may have lower report-
ing rates than women victims of sexual assaults in free society.
For female inmates, unwanted sexual behaviors, whether rape, sexual
assault, fondling, sexual harassment, or the sheer intimidation of being sexu-
ally violated, represent a continuation or re-traumatization of sexual victim-
ization dating back to childhood (Kennedy & Mennickle, 2017;
Struckman-Johnson et al., 1996). Wolff et al. (2009) conducted a study of
7,500 inmates housed in 12 adult male prisons and one female prison, reveal-
ing that incarcerated women and men who were physically and sexually vic-
timized by other inmates or correctional staff were significantly more likely
to have experienced childhood victimization. Correctional officers’ views of
women inmates as “ignominious victims” (Dumond, 1992) who are unfit,
unworthy, and deserving of sexual assault—support a desire for power, con-
trol, and domination over a...

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