Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Getting Serious About Prison Rape

In 2003, Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, initiating a comprehensive study of the phenomenon. Two days ago, the Commission released its findings. Here is the executive summary.

It suggests various legislative changes that can take place. While any single incident of rape that can be prevented is a good thing, I fear that little will change until prison rape becomes morally abhorrent in our society, rather than a source for humor.

[Previously discussed on this blog here.]

HT: The Corner

3 comments:

bob said...

I wonder how much the so called sexual revolution played a part in the proliferation of sexual abuse in the prisons. I'm not saying that it didn't happen before the sixties. The sexual revolution seems to promote the idea that sex at any time is a good thing and that to deny ones self is wrong. Combine this with anti-social people who are denied relations with the opposite sex and a lot of frustration must build up.

John said...

Yes, I'm also curious about the history of prison rape. How long has it existed in human, Western, and American history?

As for the sexual revolution -- it was a curious phenomenon. I recall reading Richard Adams' autobiography recently, and he wrote that premarital sex simply didn't happen in his generation. It wasn't conceivable. And then he slept with his girlfriend intermittently during the war.

I gotta wonder about the sexual revolution. Was it really different before the 50s and 60s? Or did we just start talking about sex instead of remaining silent?

bob said...

I think the revolution had more to do with wide spread acceptance of a more open sexuality . Taking sex out of the realm of something that caused shame. Before hand people would at least take care to be discreet.

So in short it was really shame that was revolutionized.