Research example #4

I found my research example for this week in the Journal of Urban Health. The study conducted by Nancy Wolff, Cynthia L. Blitz, Jing Shi, Ronet Bachman, and Jane Siegel, is titled “Sexual Violence Inside Prisons: Rates of Victimization”. The paper estimates the prevalence of sexual victimization within a state prison system. It also takes into account that sexual violence in prisons is a public health concern, since HIV infection rates are higher than in the general population. They conducted the study by surveying 6,964 men and 564 women utilizing an audio-CASI. Respondents were sampled through an invitation by researchers to participate in a survey. Surveys were conducted face to face as well as through questionnaires. The two main questions asked were: The questions were “Have you been sexually assaulted by (an inmate or staff member) within the past 6 months?” and “Have you ever been sexually assaulted by (an inmate or staff member) on this bid [conviction]?” Sexual violence was defined as nonconsensual sexual acts, which consisted of forced sex acts, including oral and anal sex, and abusive sexual contacts, which included intentional touching of specified areas of the body. One surprising result of the study was the prevalence of inmate on inmate sexual victimization in the female prison was higher than in the male prison. Additionally, the study found no statistically significant differences between males and females in rates of experiencing staff-on-inmate sexual violence. While female inmates were more likely to be sexually victimized by other inmates than by staff, male inmates were more likely to report an incident of sexual victimization perpetrated by staff.

 

Wolff, N., Blitz, C. L., Shi, J., Bachman, R., & Siegel, J. A. (2006). Sexual Violence Inside Prisons: Rates of Victimization. Journal of Urban Health : Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine83(5), 835–848. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-006-9065-2