Prison, Perceptions, and Policy: Authoritarianism and Attitudes Toward Sexual Assault Victims in U.S. Correctional Facilities

• In Event: Abuse of Incarcerated People

Abstract

While sexual victimization in American men’s and women’s prisons is a widely controversial issue. The existing research suggests that the total prevalence of sexual victimization in prisons is virtually unknown, yet the known ramifications of reported occurrences yield very significant consequences for those who are victimized. Perceptions of victims and gender stereotypes play a major role in how these individuals cope with their victimization. Further, government policies such as the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) attempt to address the issue of sexual violence in American correctional facilities, however, various deficits in the capability of PREA and its executing agents exist, namely, the lack of distinction between sex, gender, age and other cultural factors. This paper will describe the unique cultural aspects of prison life for both adult men and women and how sexual victimization specifically affects male and female inmates on an economical and psychological level. This paper will further address the personality factor of authoritarianism and its influence on perceptions of sexually victimized men and women in prison. Finally, this paper will discuss, in depth, how sex crime legislation and correctional policies like PREA fail to properly address sexual violence in American prisons.

Author

• Amy Magnus, University of California, Irvine