Staff Sexual Misconduct

Abstract

This is a study of female staff sexual misconduct, drawing on reports of victims identified in large-scale national surveys of adults in prison and jails and youth in juvenile facilities. Past research has often emphasized the inmate roles and staff member vulnerabilities. More recent scholarship has moved beyond the traditional conception of sexual abuse by female correctional workers as the consequence of manipulative and predatory actions by male inmates and placed greater responsibility on the women for their actions. Although the surveys conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics over the last decade in response to the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act are unable to speak to the motivations of the victims or the perpetrators, they provide an assessment of the magnitude of the problem and offer extensive detail on the circumstances surrounding female staff sexual misconduct. The findings indicate that female staff members are overrepresented among perpetrators of staff sexual misconduct in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. The data reveal a high level of staff misconduct, involving abuse of power, trading in favors, offers of special privileges and protection, and offers of alcohol and drugs, which co-occurs with female staff sexual misconduct.