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21 Crim. Just. Pol'y Rev. 3 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/cjpr21 and id is 1 raw text is: Articles rh:inl Justice Articles .' lic. Review \,,lum 21 Numer 1 Accomplishing the Difficult ©201 aidrh20 3i30 '00' 1Publications but Not Impossible 10.11 cjp8gepucor hosted at Collecting Self-Report http://onlin .sagepub ..ur Data on Inmate-on-Inmate Sexual Assault in Prison Valerie Jenness Cheryl L. Maxson University of California, Irvine Jennifer Macy Sumner Penn State Harrisburg Kristy N. Matsuda University ofMissouri-St Louis The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) increases opportunities for scholars to con- duct research in carceral settings to determine the prevalence and contours of sexual assault. However, researchers face many challenges, including working cooperatively with state agencies while maintaining independence; gaining access to prisons and prisoners; securing necessary institutional approvals; and collecting generalizable data on a highly sensitive topic, sexual assault in prisons. This article reports our responses to these challenges in a study of inmate-on-inmate sexual assault in California. We describe our research procedures and provide an assessment of interviewer effects and threats to the generalizability of our sample. Our experience should be instructive to other researchers undertaking similar efforts at a moment in time in which others have rightfully decried the decline of in-prison research. Keywords: prison research; Prison Rape Elimination Act; inmate violence; research methods n 2003, President Bush affirmed bipartisan congressional efforts to define prison rape as a national social problem worthy of immediate legislative action and sub- stantial federal funding when he signed into law the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The passage of the PREA signals that prison rape in particular and sexual assault more generally have been rendered increasingly visible as a pressing issue for corrections officials and lawmakers, redefined as a civil rights violation for inmates and wards, taken up by the courts as a form of cruel and unusual punish- ment, and politicized as an issue that inextricably intersects with faith-based initia- tives, human rights, public health, and public safety (Jenness & Smyth, 2007). In both symbolic and material terms, it is historic legislation. Most relevant for the

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