| Current estimates indicate that there are over 2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S. While prisons and other correctional facilities are designed to house perpetrators and confine them for the commission of criminal activities, in recent years, some of the incarcerated have become the victims of horrific sexual abuse crimes. Sexual abuse behind prison walls is a form of interpersonal violence that research has shown has been hidden. Further, researchers have referred to both male and female inmates who have been the victims of sexual abuse in prison as "ignominious victims-individuals regarded as unworthy and imprisoned with their perpetrators (p. 1591).;During the years 2008 to 2012, there were a total of 6,034 sex related incidents recorded by the Federal Bureau of Prisons; they consisted of (a) in 2008, 896 incidents for men and 277 for women, (b) in 2009, 996 incidents for men and 272 for women, (c) in 2010 1,224 incidents for men and 344 for women, (d) in 2011, 1,206 incidents for men and 1,061 for women and (e0 in 2012, 1,712 incidents for men and 481 for women. |
