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Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

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Implications <strong>of</strong> Sexual Victimization History for Female Prisoner AdjustmentKayleen Islam-Zwart, Eastern Washington <strong>University</strong> (kislamzwart@ewu.edu)The proportional representation <strong>of</strong> women in United States prisons has been increasing since1980. Along with this growth, there has been greater attention to the adjustment process forfemale inmates. Several personal factors have been identified as impacting prison adjustment.With as many as 78% <strong>of</strong> women in prison reporting a trauma history, the impact <strong>of</strong> sexualvictimization on adjustment is <strong>of</strong> particular interest. Results from a longitudinal study involvingminimum-security women at a state prison suggest sexual assault history impacts adjustment toincarceration in a complex manner. Specifically, after controlling for physical abuse history andneed for approval, women with a sexual assault history report significantly more initial concernsabout personal safety, but less interpersonal and physical discomfort than women with novictimization history. Women assaulted exclusively as adults report more internal adjustmentproblems (interpersonal discomfort, insomnia, anger), safety concerns, and altercations thanwomen victimized as children and adults. Over time, inmates reporting a sexual assault historyshow consistent levels <strong>of</strong> internal adjustment problems (high for women with no assault historyand low for women reporting childhood and adult sexual assault) from the first to third weeks <strong>of</strong>incarceration, while inmates without a history <strong>of</strong> sexual assault report initially higher levels <strong>of</strong>internal adjustment reaction that decrease to levels below that <strong>of</strong> the sexually assaulted group.Findings articulate the link between victimization history and adjustment to incarceration forfemale <strong>of</strong>fenders, and highlight the importance <strong>of</strong> assessment <strong>of</strong> victimization history andtailored interventions to facilitate rehabilitation.Juvenile Victims <strong>of</strong> Sex Trafficking: Another Gendered Pathway to Crime forWomenEmily J. Salisbury, Portland State <strong>University</strong> (salisbury@pdx.edu)Criminologists continue to debate whether a single, general theory <strong>of</strong> crime is favored overtypological, or taxonomic, etiological explanations. The debate is becoming particularly relevantin the study <strong>of</strong> women’s <strong>of</strong>fending patterns. For three decades, qualitative research has supporteda gendered pathways perspective, and more recent quantitative data also demonstrated empiricalsupport <strong>of</strong> female-specific trajectories toward crime. One pathway that continues to emerge inthe research involves prior sexual victimization as a primary distal factor in the etiology <strong>of</strong>women’s <strong>of</strong>fending. Using data from a juvenile detention facility in Washington state (U.S.), thispaper argues that within the commonly cited sexual victimization pathway is perhaps anothersub-pathway, one that reflects childhood victims <strong>of</strong> sex trafficking (i.e., commercial sexualexploitation <strong>of</strong> children or child “prostitution”).414

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