Pubdate: Mon, 12 Apr 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A02
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
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Author: Edward Walsh, Washington Post Staff Writer

STUDY FINDS LINK BETWEEN INCARCERATION, PRIOR ABUSE

A high percentage of the nation's prison and jail inmates, especially
female inmates, say they experienced physical or sexual abuse before
their incarceration, the Justice Department said in a report made
public yesterday.

The report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics said that almost half
the women and a tenth of the men in state and federal prisons and
local jails reported prior abuse. Among those in state prison systems,
which account for the bulk of the nation's incarcerated population and
the vast majority of violent criminals, 16 percent of male inmates and
57 percent of female inmates reported prior physical or sexual abuse.

A third of the female inmates in state prisons said they had been
raped before their incarceration, according to the report.

Much of the abuse occurred when the future prison inmates were
children. The report said that 14 percent of the men in state prisons
and 37 percent of the women reported being physically or sexually
abused before the age of 18. Among the general population, the rate of
child abuse is estimated at 5 percent to 8 percent for men and 12
percent to 17 percent for women, the report said.

Overall, the statistics from surveys of prison and jail inmates in
1996 and 1997 suggest a link between dysfunctional families plagued by
alcohol and drug problems and future criminal behavior.

"These are striking and sobering findings," said Caroline Wolf Harlow,
the Justice Department statistician who compiled the report.

One of the strongest links suggested by the report was between prior
abuse and violent crime. The study compared the violent crime rate
among two groups of prisoners--those who said they had been abused and
those who said they had not. Among the almost 1 million male state
prisoners, 61 percent of those who said they had been abused were
serving a sentence for a violent crime. By comparison, 46 percent of
male prisoners who said they had not been abused had been convicted of
a violent crime. Among the more than 65,000 female state prisoners, 34
percent who had been abused and 21 percent who had not been abused
were in prison for a violent offense.

When prior convictions were counted, the numbers were even higher.
More than 75 percent of male prisoners and close to half of female
prisoners who reported being abused had been convicted of a violent
crime, according to the report.

"I think there's a definite relationship here," Harlow said. She added
that she suspects that the actual level of pre-incarceration abuse of
the nation's prison and jail inmates is higher than the numbers in the
report, which relied on interviews with a representative sample of
inmates.

Troubled family backgrounds was another common denominator, especially
among women in the state prison population. For example,
three-quarters of female prisoners who reported that they had a parent
who abused alcohol or drugs also said they had been physically or
sexually abused. Among those who did not report such problems in their
family, the abuse rate dropped to 46 percent.

For state prisoners who spent at least part of their childhoods in
foster homes or institutions, the abuse rate was even higher. The
report said that 44 percent of male prisoners and 87 percent of female
prisoners in this category reported abuse. Harlow said it is not known
whether the abuse occurred before or after these people were placed in
foster homes or institutions.
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