Study Finds Rape of Inmates Relatively Rare in New Jersey

A survey of adult inmates in every New Jersey prison has found that 3.2 percent of women and 1.5 percent of men reported being sexually assaulted by other inmates during a six-month period. Rutgers University professor Nancy Wolff, the study's lead author, said that this rate is "considerably lower" than that reported in many other states, some of which have found rates "as high as 20 percent" over a comparable time span.

Wolff credited educational efforts by the state Department of Corrections for the fact that some inmates now say prison rape is largely a thing of the past because "everybody's afraid of HIV and AIDS."

While about one in 29 men (3.5 percent) reported abusive sexual touching by fellow inmates, one in every five women (20.1 percent) reported such incidents. The higher rate of victimization among female inmates was the study's "most surprising" finding, said Deirdre Fedkenheuer, DOC spokesperson.

Wolff offered one possible explanation for the higher reports of abuse among women. While all female inmates are sent to the same prison in Clinton, men found to be repeat sex offenders are segregated at a facility in Woodbridge.

In response to the survey's results, Fedkenheuer said DOC has installed more surveillance cameras at the women's prison, produced an inmate orientation video, and increased training about prison sex abuse.

The same proportion of men and women, 6.6 percent, said they had been groped by staffers. Among men, 1.9 percent said they had been sexually assaulted by staff, while 1.7 percent of women reported such attacks. Fedkenheuer said very little of the abuse documented in the survey had been reported to authorities.

The authors noted that the study's results could be biased by respondents who wanted "revenge against custody officers or the prison system itself."

The survey comprised responses from 6,964 men and 564 women.

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