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Reporting Prison Rape

“Sexual assault is [already] an underreported crime,” and prison rape only increases the likelihood for individuals to not “report their assaults to law enforcement personnel.” A “Crime Victimization Survey [concluded] that only 20-35% of female sexual assault victims” openly discuss and report their assault to police enforcement. Sexual assault victims deal with severe shame and fear, which plays a significant role in their decision to report the crime. Women and other minorities have especially difficult circumstances when it comes to dealing with reporting sexual assault to law enforcement.  “Certain communities and settings” make it more difficult to report assault; for instance college campuses are notorious for not handling rape claims appropriately.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act “(PREA) was passed in 2003, but” unfortunately the guidelines and standards that made up the act were not executed nationally until 2014. A study conducted by five reputable scholars analyzed “what factors” are important to the decision making process of women behind reporting sexual assault in prison “in an effort to inform or enhance the implementation of PREA.” The study was made up of 179 incarcerated women who experienced “almost 400 incidents of staff sexual misconduct.” The study was focused on women because there is a higher volume of women sexually assaulted in prisons, making the majority of the reporting cases studied female.

The study addressed the individual-level factors that contribute to the reporting of sexual assault in prisons. Victim gender plays a role in reporting, in “that female victims of sexual assault are more likely to report their assaults than male victims.” In regards to victim race, it appeared that there was no difference in reported cases based on race in incarcerated women. Another important factor in reported cases of sexual assault can be victim age. Younger victims are more likely to report than older victims, most likely because younger victims want to take action while the older victims are more concerned with the “potential consequences with reporting.” Victim’s income and victim education are surprising factors in that “women of higher socioeconomic status are less likely to report sexual assault,” and women with higher education tend to report less frequently than those with less formal schooling.

In addition to these individual-level factors, the study revealed that the type of assault had adverse effects of the likelihood of reporting. “Assaults which resulted in a physical injury were 3.7 times more likely to be reported” and the “assaults that occurred on more than one occasion were only half as likely to be reported.” Assaults that resulted in compensation in one form or another were much less likely to be reported. All of these factors that determine an inmate’s likelihood of reporting play a major role in how prison rape should be handled. Individuals need to feel comfortable with speaking out and need to be aware of their options in regards to reporting, as well as a reassessment of correctional staff.

In another study, Brett Garland and Gabrielle Wilson studied whether reporting sexual assault is viewed the same as snitching in prison settings. The data gathered from their scholarly journal was collected from the “EthnoMethodological Study of the Subculture of Prison Inmate Sexuality in the United States, 2004-2005, retrieved from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research,” which analyzed 409 male imamates and 155 female inmates from “30 high-security prisons.” These prisons were spread throughout 10 different states within “four regions of the United States.” The results of Garland and Wilson’s analysis of the data were “sixty-five percent of the inmates studied” agreed that reporting sexual assault is the same as snitching. It was also found that “the odds of an inmate considering that reporting rape is synonymous with snitching increases 33% for every” increase in the months that have been served on an individual’s sentencing time. But, as time goes on, an inmate’s likelihood of registering reporting with snitching will eventually hit a plateau, and their sentencing time will no longer determine their view on reporting. Race and ethnicity were evaluated and the data showed that “black inmates are less likely to consider reporting rape as snitching.” Several other variables were analyzed, such as “age first imprisoned, prior prison commitments, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or violent offense,” but proved to be not significant with the goal of the research.

This study shines a light on the reality of inmates’ views on rape. Garland and Wilson conclude that there is “a need to address inmate socialization immediately upon inmate arrival, as the likelihood of accepting the reporting of rape as snitching increases the most during the earlier months of incarceration.” The study reassures that an inmate’s decision on whether or not to report sexual assault depends again on a multitude of factors.

A journal written by four scholarly researchers, the subject of rape myth acceptance (RMA) was analyzed to see how it affects the reporting of sexual assault with women. Throughout the beginning of their study, the authors introduced the idea of the “’classic rape’” which is seen as an “abduction, the perpetrator being a stranger, severe force, and serious injury.” Incarcerated women are likely to compare their own sexual assault to their own concept of what constitutes as "rape." This correlation is believed to “negatively impact women’s’ decisions to report to the police.” Rape myth is defined as “specific beliefs about rape that are widespread and persistently held, despite the fact that they are largely false.”

The overall goal of the study was to determine “whether RMA is a true barrier for incarcerated women” in terms of reporting behaviors. The overall results of the study showed that women who accepted rape myths were “98.1 times less likely” to report their sexual assault to the police. It is highlighted that “rape victims’ mental health” is directly affected by whether or not they decided to report their sexual assault. It is disclosed that individuals that report their assault early on “can result in higher self-esteem and fewer post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.” Since RMA is negatively correlated with a victim’s reporting behavior, it can be said, “RMA is a barrier to psychological recovery and healing.”