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Justice Department Study: Youths Sexually Abused in Juvenile Prisons

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Study: Youths sexually abused in juvenile prisons USA Today 1-8-10 By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY More than 12% of youths in juvenile prisons are sexually abused while in custody there, according to a Justice Department study out Thursday, and the vast majority of cases involve female staff and boys under their supervision. In the worst facilities surveyed ? in Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas ? more than 30% of youths reported they had been sexually victimized. The study, the first of its kind, shows a rate of sexual assault more than seven times higher than that indicated by a 2008 Justice Department report that collected sexual abuse claims to juvenile facility administrators. It is also higher than a similar study of adult prisons because of the "very high rate of staff sexual misconduct," said Allen Beck, who directed the survey for the Bureau of Justice Statistics...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on January 08, 2010 (boomark / email).