Victimization and Youthful Prison Inmates: An Empirical Analysis

Prison violence researchers have traditionally studied older offenders housed in maximum-security institutions. The present study analyzes victimization data from a sample of young offenders in a medium-security state prison. Youthful inmates were most often the victims of verbal harassment and property theft. Conversely, few inmates reported having been sexually assaulted, extorted for money, or had weapons used against them. In general, victims were more likely than nonvictims to be White, have higher levels of fear, experience more severely the “pains” of imprisonment, and be less psychologically healthy.