NCJ Number
206771
Journal
Corrections Today Magazine Volume: 66 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2004 Pages: 26-28,64
Date Published
July 2004
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article reports on what the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is doing to implement the provisions of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in juvenile residential facilities.
Abstract
The PREA requires the BJS to develop a new national data collection on the incidence and prevalence of sexual assault within correctional facilities. The act covers all public and private residential facilities that house detained and adjudicated juveniles. In an effort to implement this legislation, the BJS conducted workshops to discuss data-collection strategies, one for adult inmates and one for juveniles in residential facilities. The workshops noted that there have been few studies on the prevalence of sexual assault within correctional facilities, and the existing studies are typically small, covering only a few facilities. The categories of sexual violence to be included in the data collection reflect definitions formulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The two categories are completed (or attempted) nonconsensual sexual acts and abusive intentional sexual touching of another's private parts through clothing. All sexual acts that involve staff are considered misconduct and are covered under the Act. Currently there is no reliable collection methodology for measuring sexual assault in juvenile facilities. To meet the requirements of the Act, BJS is developing and testing the use of audio computer-assisted self-interviews. This will involve juveniles responding to a computer questionnaire by using a touch screen or keyboard based on audio instructions delivered through headphones. Concurrent with the development of self-report survey methodologies, BJS will conduct an annual administrative records collection. During 2004, BJS intends to conduct an initial survey of all State juvenile systems and a representative sample (not less than 10 percent) of local and private juvenile facilities covered under the Act. BJS will provide multiple measures of sexual assault victimization, so as to permit BJS to analyze the validity of various data collection methodologies as well as their impact on facility-level estimates. The U.S. Census Bureau will act as the collection agent for the surveys of administrative records in 2004, 2005, and 2006. BJS will also seek data-collection agents to design, develop, and field-test the surveys to be administered in juvenile facilities. To meet the requirements of the Act, BJS will conduct an initial administrative records collection this year (2004), which will provide system-level and facility-level estimates of sexual assault for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2004. Similar collections are planned for 2005 and 2006. Test result of the surveys will be available in early 2006.