Youth in custody experience violence, theft and assault at an alarming rate, according to a national survey by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
In the final bulletin in OJJDP's series on the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, which gathered data directly from youth in custody, respondents were asked about their victimization experiences while living in their current facility.
Questions covered theft, robbery, physical assault or threat, and sexual assault.
“46 percent of youth had their property stolen in their absence, 10 percent were directly robbed, 29 percent were threatened or beaten, 9 percent were beaten or injured, and 4 percent were forced to engage in sexual activity.”
A report released last week by the Bureau of Justice Statistics had similar findings about sexual abuse in juvenile facilities. In that study, 3.5 percent of surveyed youth in juvenile justice facilities said they had experienced forced sexual contact.
Read the OJJDP report HERE.