Transitioning Times

A few weeks ago, I found myself filled with remorse over a particular call for advocacy that came in at the rape crisis center where I work.  As a prevention education specialist, my main job is to instruct students on ways to stay safe in relationship to other people.  However, all employees are trained to provide on-call crisis services on a rotation schedule, and it was my week. Prison rape was an issue that I had never had an opportunity to address before in my professional life.  Bowled over by the depths of despair, humiliation, and physical damage that I witnessed, I realized that this was an issue I could no longer ignore.  I thought of the girls and boys in my elementary school programs.  As their faces spun in my mind, I realized that according to statistics, it is likely that some of these students will end up in prison.  Scientific studies show that abused children, bullied children, as well as kids who are bullies – all have a much higher ...

  According to a study funded by the United States Department of Justice , many youths who are detained are being victimized.   These numbers are self-reported by the youth who are detained.    10.8% of males and 4.7% of females reported sexual activity with facility staff.   9.1% of females and 2.0% of males reported unwanted sexual activity with other youth.   Youth with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual reported significantly higher rates of sexual victimization by another youth (12.5%) compared to heterosexual youth (1.3%).     Youth who had experienced any prior sexual assault were more than twice as likely to report sexual victimization in the current facility (24.1%), compared to those with no sexual assault history (10.1%).   The above statistic is especially unsettling to me.   We know that in the general population, an adult who was a sexual abuse victim as a child is an average of 2.5 more li...