US study: More than 12% of "youths" in juvenile prisons are sexually abused; most cas

**Zuberi** · 17th-January-2010

Article here. Notice the use of the word "youths" when referring to a class of victims who are mostly boys. If so many were female, the word "girls" would most certainly have been used. Excerpt:
'More than 12% of youths in juvenile prisons are sexually abused while in custody there, according to a Justice Department study out Thursday, and the vast majority of cases involve female staff and boys under their supervision. (ed.: emphasis added)
In the worst facilities surveyed — in Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas — more than 30% of youths reported they had been sexually victimized. The study, the first of its kind, shows a rate of sexual assault more than seven times higher than that indicated by a 2008 Justice Department report that collected sexual abuse claims to juvenile facility administrators. It is also higher than a similar study of adult prisons because of the "very high rate of staff sexual misconduct," said Allen Beck, who directed the survey for the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The survey of 9,198 youths ages 13 to 21 — all in custody by order of a juvenile court — included methods to eliminate interviews considered unreliable. The survey covered 195 facilities, at least one in each state. Approximately 26,550 juveniles — 91% of them boys — are held in more than 500 such facilities around the country.'

**Celtic Druid** · 17th-January-2010

The study, the first of its kind, shows a rate of sexual assault more than seven times higher than that indicated by a 2008 Justice Department report that collected sexual abuse claims to juvenile facility administrators.

Is such a discrepancy really suprising when the administrators themselves may have been involved in the abuse or merely sought to brush it under the carpet to avoid governmental scrutiny? Therefore it stands to reason a more accurate means of collating statistics would be to intreact with the children directly.