Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts

Major

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Date of Defense

7-20-2021

Graduate Advisor

Dr. Elaine Doherty

Committee

Dr. Beth Huebner

Dr. Marisa Omori

Dr. Lee Slocum

Abstract

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 was passed in order to provide a set of guidelines for reporting and reacting to prison rapes (PREA, 2020). This project uses secondary data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities to identify factors associated with prison rape victimization. Rates of institutional violence have not decreased as have the rates of violence outside of institutions (Wooldredge, 2020; Morgan & Truman, 2020). One area of institutional violence research that is lacking is prison rape research. As more research is done on prison rape victimization, this project extends on this body of literature by running a series of analytical texts that compare respondents who reported unwanted sexual contact while incarcerated to those who did not. The results yield one significant finding: respondents with prior incarceration histories are two times more likely to report unwanted sexual contact while incarcerated. Implications for research and policy will be discussed.

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