Though Federal Law prohibits any form of sexual relations between inmates and correctional officers, several States still allow consent to be a defense in criminal proceedings. Thus, this enables officers to use the law meant to protect inmates to protect themselves. Along with this, according to U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. (2005), statistics show that the majority of cases involving sexual assault and rape go unprosecuted. The main reason for this happening is that there is never enough physical evidence to corroborate the complaining victim’s stories. Only forty percent of sexual assault cases result in prosecution. (U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, 2005). However of the forty percent of cases prosecuted, only eight percent warranted more than one year of prison time while seventy-five percent of the cases resulted in probation (U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, 2005). With arrest and prosecution rates of predator CO’s at a low, it does not deter staff in correctional facilities from victimizing the women that are incarcerated there. As a result, Nancy Wolff and Jing Shi (2009), found that women inmates feel less safe in correctional institutions. The study found compared to male inmates, women inmates were more afraid of being victimized by stuff opposed to males who felt …show more content…
One reason is because the female inmate population is very vulnerable and isn’t fit to give consent of sexual activity ((U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, 2005). Most female inmates suffer from forms of sexual abuse, drug abuse or mental illness. Due to their vulnerability, sexual contact with inmates can be harmful to female inmates (U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, 2005). Another reason why sexual relations between the two will always be considered sexual harassment is because CO’s exercise a considerable amount of control over the lives of the inmates. It has been said what when such a relationship exists, it’s impossible for the lessor person to give sexual consent (U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, 2005). It has also been noted that some inmates engage in sexual behaviors with staff in order to receive contraband from the guards (Elizabeth, 2013). The final reason is that there aren’t any truly effective laws set in place to prevent women from being forced or coerced into sexual behavior with CO’s (Talvi, 2007). Male correctional officers are at times left alone with female inmates without any other female CO present. This causes a female inmate to be left vulnerable to