NEW YORK - Widely held misconceptions about the extent and nature of sexual victimization in U.S. jails are indirectly exposed in the results of a study released here Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Sexual Victimization in Local Jails 2007 study - the first of its kind for those facilities - reports that 3.2 per cent of inmates questioned say they've been targets of sexual predators behind bars.
Criteria for listing oneself as a victim included not only rape, but being inappropriately touched.
Authors of the study acknowledged that many in the wider public will be surprised at the findings.
One myth is that rape behind bars is relatively widespread. "Those things happen and we're finding them, but it isn't the 20 per cent figure that some believe," said Allen Beck, senior statistical adviser for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, who jointly led the study.
"The prevalence of such acts is relatively small."
Among other findings, the profiles of some of the most likely inmates to be victimized produced surprises - even for the experts.
The incidence of people of mixed race as victims was higher than the average, as was that of people educated to the college level.
"The mixed-race profile came as a surprise," said Beck.
"Vulnerabilities in terms of race exist and are complex things to explain."
As for the college graduate factor, Beck noted that separate statistics show crime is relatively less prevalent among people with high levels of education, suggesting they are less likely to previously have been in jail.
"They may be less experienced inmates," he said.
The profiles of the predators also could surprise some: while the victim reports showed more than half were prison staff, a significant number of that group included women guards on male inmates.
According to the report, nearly 62 per cent of all reported incidents of staff sexual misconduct involved female staff with male inmates; eight per cent involved male staff with female inmates.
The study, which involved 24,700 inmates, is required under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act. It follows a similar study, released in December, that showed 4.5 per cent of inmates surveyed in state and federal prisons reported sexual victimization.
There are 780,000 inmates in jails across the United States, many awaiting sentencing for moderate to serious crimes, or serving short sentences.
According to the latest study, women and homosexuals reported markedly above-average levels of victimization.
"What women report is more likely to be the unwanted grabbing, groping, touching abuse, as opposed to sexual acts that involve penetration," said Beck.
Of female inmates surveyed, 5.1 percent reported sexual victimization; 18.5 per cent of inmates describing themselves as homosexual reported being victimized sexually. The corresponding percentages for mixed race and college-educated victims were 4.1 and 4.6.