This report describes characteristics of juvenile justice facilities related to youth-reported sexual victimization. The report presents sexual victimization rates reported by youth in juvenile facilities by topics such as facility organizational structure, staff, and atmosphere. It also provides facility-reported data on staff hiring in juvenile facilities, staff training, and youth PREA education. These tables supplement the full BJS report Sexual Victimization Reported by Youth in Juvenile Facilities, 2018, which provides national estimates of sexual victimization in juvenile facilities and identifies 12 high-rate and 14 low-rate facilities. The statistics are reported pursuant to the goals of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; P.L. 108-79).
In 2018—
- All juvenile facilities reported using criminal record or history checks to screen potential new hires of frontline staff (those responsible for supervision and direct care of youth), while about three-quarters (76%) conducted domestic violence or civil protective order checks and two-thirds (68%) conducted drug use tests.
- A larger percentage of youth held in facilities with 51 to 100 (6.6%) or 101 or more youth (7.4%) reported staff sexual misconduct than youth held in facilities with 10 to 25 youth (3.8%).
- Facilities where a majority of youth reported the presence of gang activity had youth reporting any sexual victimization (8.5%) at about 17 times the rate of facilities where no youth reported gang activity (0.5%).
- In facilities where half or fewer youth reported having their own room, the percentage who reported any sexual victimization (7.3%) was twice that reported by youth in facilities where all youth reported having their own room (3.1%).