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Survey: One Of Eight Juvenile Inmates Sexually Abused

January 7, 2010
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By David Schultz

The U.S. Department of Justice released the results of a congressionally mandated survey today. Twelve percent of the juvenile inmates who responded say they've been sexual abused. That's three to four times higher than in surveys of adult inmates.

Of that 12 percent, an overwhelming majority say they were abused by facility staffers, not by their fellow inmates. Two facilities in Virginia, one in Culpeper and the other in Bon Air, were singled out for especially high rates of sexual abuse, more than 25 percent.

Bruce Twyman, a spokesman with the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, says the state will review it's training practices.

"This is not something that we take lightly in the state by any means," he says.

Nearly all the inmates who say they were sexually abused by staffers told the Department of Justice their abusers were female.

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