Description
With rape endemic to the US prison system (committed by both inmates and guards) and prosecutors routinely holding the threat of rape over the heads of the accused, it's fair to call prison rape "an American institution" and a "continuing shame of American society," as Singer (law, King's College London, England) does here in his examination of the problem. He presents information on the extent of the problem, describes the costs of sexual abuse in incarceration both in terms of harm to victims and in terms of the dollar and moral cost to American society, considers currently available methods for combating sexual abuse in incarceration through the courts, and conducts an analysis of the provisions and (so far meager) impacts of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Rape is a fact of life for the incarcerated. Can American society maintain the commitment expressed in recent federal legislation to eliminate the rampant and costly sexual abuse that has been institutionalized into its system of incarceration?Each year, as many as 200,000 individuals are victims of various types of sexual abuse perpetrated in American prisons, jails, juvenile detention facilities, and lockups. As many as 80,000 of them suffer violent or repeated rape. Those who are outside the incarceration experience are largely unaware of this ongoing physical and mental damage—abuses that not only affect the victims and perpetrators, but also impose vast costs on society as a whole. This book supplies a uniquely full account of this widespread sexual abuse problem.Author Michael Singer has drawn on official reports to provide a realistic assessment of the staggering financial cost to society of this sexual abuse, and comprehensively addressed the current, severely limited legal procedures for combating sexual abuse in incarceration. The book also provides an evaluation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 and its recently announced national standards, and assesses their likely future impact on the institution of prison rape in America.
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