Rape And Sexual Assault Run Rampant In Juvenile Justice System: Justice Department Survey
By Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica
Hundreds of teen-agers are raped or sexually assaulted during their stays in the countrys juvenile detention facilities, and many of them are victimized repeatedly, according to a U.S. Department of Justice survey.
The teens are most often assaulted by staff members working at the facilities, and fully 20 percent of those victimized by the men and women charged with protecting and counseling them said they had been violated on more than 10 occasions.
Todays report illustrates the fundamental failure of many juvenile detention facilities to keep their youth safe, said Louisa Stannow, executive director of Just Detention International, a California-based health and human rights organization.
The Justice Department survey 2014 covering both secure juvenile detention facilities and group homes, the less restrictive settings into which troubled youngsters are often ordered 2014 involved more than 8,500 boys and girls. In all, 1,720 of those surveyed reported being sexually assaulted.
Allen Beck, the author of the report, said that the rates of staff-on-inmate abuse among juveniles are about three times higher than what we find in the adult arena.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/06/rape-and-sexual-assault-run-rampant-in-juvenile-justice-system-justice-department-survey/