12% of Youth in Juvenile Detention Victims of Sexual Violence

A report that was released on January 7, 2010, by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), regarding the levels of sexual victimization within juvenile detention facilities leaves many shocked by the statistics.  The report, Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09, is part of a series of statistical reviews, which are required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79). The Act requires that the BJS to obtain data on the levels of prison rape from both adult and youth detention facility administrators as well as from detainees. As required by the Act, the juvenile facilities are listed alphabetically by state and list the estimated sexual victimization prevalence level, as reported by youths during a personal interview, and based on activity in the 12 months prior to the interview or since admission to the facility, if shorter.

The data collected from the 2008-09 National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC), was conducted in 195 juvenile detention facilities, using a study sample of more than 9,000 juveniles, between June 2008 and April 2009. The report provides national-level and facility-level estimates of sexual victimization by type of activity, including youth-on-youth sexual contact, staff sexual misconduct, and level of coercion. The report also includes an analysis of the experience of sexual victimization, characteristics of youth most at risk to victimization, where the incidents occur, time of day, characteristics of perpetrators, and nature of the injuries. Finally, it includes estimates of the sampling error for selected measures of sexual victimization and summary characteristics of victims and incidents.

Highlights include the following:

• An estimated 12% of youth in state juvenile facilities and large non-state facilities (representing 3,220 youth nationwide) reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another youth or facility staff in the past 12 months.
• This report represents 26,550 adjudicated youth held nationwide in state operated and large locally or privately operated juvenile facilities.
• 80% of the sexual abuse reported in the study was perpetrated by staff at the facility.
• 95% of all youth making claims of abuse say that they were victimized by female staff members.
• Non-heterosexual youth reported significantly higher rates of sexual abuse by other youth (12.5%) compared to heterosexual youth (1.3%).
• 91% of youth in these facilities were male; 9% were female.
• About 2.6% of youth (700 nationwide) reported an incident involving another youth and 10.3% reported an incident involving staff.

Please note that the 12% victimization rate only reflects that in which is reported, and the true numbers are significantly higher.   Many children in care or detention facilities will not report instances of abuse, especially on going abuse, out of fear and shame.   The report also does not look at the levels for which youth in the facilities may have been victims of abuse prior to their sentence in youth detention. Therefore this report only opens the flood gates to highlight the levels of abuse which have occurred, or may occur, within the juvenile justice system.