NCJ Number
230244
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2010 Pages: 3-30
Date Published
March 2010
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study examined the art of conducting research on sexual assault in correctional settings.
Abstract
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) increases opportunities for scholars to conduct research in carceral settings to determine the prevalence and contours of sexual assault. However, researchers face many challenges, including working cooperatively with State agencies while maintaining independence; gaining access to prisons and prisoners; securing necessary institutional approvals; and collecting generalizable data on a highly sensitive topic, sexual assault in prisons. This article reports the responses to these challenges in a study of inmate-on-inmate sexual assault in California. The authors describe research procedures and provide an assessment of interviewer effects and threats to the generalizability of their sample. The authors experience should be instructive to other researchers undertaking similar efforts at a moment in time in which others have rightfully decried the decline of in-prison research. Tables, notes, and references (Published Abstract)