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U.S. Report: Rape, Sexual Abuse Rampant in Juvenile Corrections Facilities
January 7, 2010A long-awaited report from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) finds that youth in juvenile corrections facilities are sexually abused at alarming rates and are victimized significantly more often than adult inmates. A shocking 12.1 percent - or almost one in eight - of the detained youth who participated in the survey reported sexual abuse at their current facility during the previous year. On any given day, there are approximately 93,000 youth confined in juvenile facilities, more than half of whom are 16 or younger. "These figures are unconscionable, and even more so when you consider that the survey did not include youth locked up in adult facilities, where many are at even greater risk for abuse," said Lovisa Stannow, Executive Director of Just Detention International. The study - "Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09" - is based on a survey given to 9,198 youth detainees in 195 facilities from all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Full release.