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Publications

Legal Responses to Sexual Violence in Custody: State Criminal Laws Prohibiting the Sexual Abuse of Individuals under Custodial Supervision
By: Brenda V. Smith and Jaime M. Yarussi
2009

Over the past decade, sexual abuse of individuals under custodial supervision has permeated the news. Media coverage has focused on criminal prosecutions of staff and on civil litigation brought by offenders against staff perpetrators, corrections officials and correctional agencies. These stories demonstrate that no correctional setting is immune from staff sexual misconduct. Many states have sought to address this problem in recent years by enacting criminal laws explicitly prohibiting staff sexual interactions with adults and youth under correctional supervision. This publication provides an overview of these laws and examines trends in their enactment and amendment.

Legal Responses to Sexual Violence in Custody:
Sex Offender Registration Statutes: Impact on Addressing Sexual Abuse in Custodial Settings
By Brenda V. Smith and Mary Elizabath Pavlik
2012

This publication addresses sex offender registration and its utility as a tool for addressing sexual violence in correctional institutions.  While the publication primarily discusses correctional settings, the issues it raises also apply to other custodial settings, such as nursing homes and facilities for the mentally disabled and mentally retarded.

COMING SOON!

The Project on Addressing Prison Rape is in the final drafting stages of two additional publications in the Legal Responses series. The publications provide and overview and discussion of state criminal laws on: (1) mandatory reporting of sexual abuse; and (2) the use of vulnerable persons statutes in cases of sexual abuse in custodial settings. If you have questions about the above mentioned publications prior to our posting them, please email us at endsilence@wcl.american.edu.