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Survey of Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Justice Facilities, United States, 2015
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The Survey of Sexual Victimization (SSV) is part of BJS's National Prison Rape Statistics Program, which gathers mandated data on the incidence and prevalence of sexual victimization in adult correctional and juvenile justice facilities, under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; P.L. 108-79). This is an administrative data collection based on allegations of sexual victimization by other adjudicated juveniles or staff that are reported to authorities. The collection includes an enumeration of allegations and substantiated incidents reported to juvenile justice systems operated by states and the District of Columbia and tribal juvenile facilities and a sample of local and private juvenile justice facilities.
In 2015, correctional administrators reported 3,150 allegations of sexual victimization. This total contains all allegations of five types of victimization measured by the SSV - youth-on-youth nonconsensual sexual acts, abusive sexual contacts, and sexual harassment as well as staff-on-youth sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. Of those allegations, 642 were substantiated after investigation.
Detailed Methodology
A census of the 50 state central reporters and facilities that report separately was taken from the JRFC frame. A census of all 19 tribal juvenile facilities was taken from the Jails in Indian Country (JIC) frame. Samples were collected of locally and privately operated juvenile facilities. A sample of 530 locally or privately operated juvenile justice facilities was drawn from the frame of the Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC) and the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP). The largest locally-and privately-operated facilities in each state were sampled with certainty. 36 locally operated facilities and 48 privately-operated facilities were selected with certainty as the largest in each state. Then, detention facilities and large local and private facilities were sampled with certainty due to size. 21 locally operated, 52 privately-operated facilities, and 49 detention facilities were selected as certainties due to size. There were 7 non-certainty strata: 4 strata for detention facilities based on region (Midwest, Northeast, South, West), local non-commitment facilities, local commitment facilities, and the remaining private facilities. Facilities were selected in each of the non-certainty strata by serpentine-sorting by region, two-digit state code, facility type, and the number of beds, then were selected with probability proportional to size. Final stratum sizes were: 41 Midwest detention facilities, 11 Northeast detention facilities, 39 Southern detention facilities, 34 Western detention facilities, 6 local non-commitment facilities, 34 local commitment facilities, 159 private facilities.