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Prison rape has been referred to by many as “America’s most ‘open secret’” (Nolan and Telford, 2006, p. 129). A report by the Human Rights Watch found that an estimated 125,000-600,000 prisoners are being raped each year in the USA (Nolan and Telford, 2006) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that about 10 percent of former state prisoners claim “one or more incidents of sexual victimization during the most recent period of incarceration in jail, prison, and post-release community-treatment facility” (Beck and Johnson, 2012, p. 5). The most recent data collected in response to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) confirms that the number of allegations of sexual victimization is on the rise and about 10 percent of allegations were found to be substantiated (Beck, 2015). Although considerably lower than the over two million inmates in custody, these are alarming statistics. Additionally, it seems that an individual’s perception of this risk is even higher than the actual risk. This is worthy of attention because many react to their perception of being harmed rather than the actual risk of it. Having an institution with a high fear of rape can have negative consequences for the safety and security of the prison. While much research has been completed on the prevalence of prison rape, there is little available on how an inmate’s perception of the institution can affect their fear of rape. Given that research has found that perceptions of reality might be more relevant to human behavior than reality itself (Nagin 1998; Ferraro, 1995), it becomes paramount to investigate how these perceptions develop.
An inmate’s fear of rape can manifest in two very different expressions. First, the reaction to the fear could cause an inmate to become more dangerous in order to protect themselves. An inmate who believes that the only way not to become a victim is to be an aggressor may become more violent, which can have a direct effect on the amount of misconduct within the prison. This negative behavior not only has consequences for other inmates, but for the correctional officers as well. Alternatively, inmates who develop fear of rape may alter their behavior as a reaction to their fear. These individuals can become isolated, withdrawn, and could become paranoid by...