Prison rape

Prison rape commonly refers to the rape of inmates in prison by other inmates or prison staff. Less commonly, both female and male corrections officers and other staff have been raped by prison inmates: the rapes almost exclusively occur in the shower rooms. Rape committed in prison is thought to be more about power and control than sex. The experience of rape can be psychologically worse than regular violence, and inmates may use rape to dominate other inmates.

In 2001, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 140,000 inmates in the United States had been raped while incarcerated, and there is a significant variation in the rates of prison rape by race. Just Detention International estimate that young men are five times more likely to be attacked; and that the prison rape victims are ten times more likely to contract a deadly sexually transmitted disease. In contrast to these high figures, a meta-analysis published in 2004 found a prevalence rate of 1.91% with a 95% confidence interval between 1.37–2.46%. Applying that 1.91% figure to the nearly 2.3 million inmates currently incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States suggests that raped inmates number 43,800.

In the United States
According to the study conducted by the United States Department of Justice for the year 2006, there were 2,205 allegations of inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts reported, total, in the U.S. prison system. 262 of the allegations were substantiated.

In 2003, the U.S. Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.