Women in prison are four times as likely to report having been raped in their lifetime than those who are not incarcerated and 10 times as likely to report having been raped as a child, according to newly published research by a CU Boulder criminologist.

The first-of-a-kind study, 15 years in the making , also found that rape significantly increased a young woman’s chances of dropping out of high school—another known risk factor for incarceration.

The findings were published in the journal Criminal Justice and Behavior.

Joanne Belknap

“The big picture finding here is that being raped overwhelmingly increases your chances of going to prison,” said lead author Joanne Belknap, professor emeritus in the Department of Ethnic Studies. “Our research suggests that this thing that can happen to you when you’re a kid, and maybe you don’t even know what it is or how to name it at the time, can influence the entire trajectory of your life.”

Counting the forgotten

The study is not the first to find that victims of sexual violence are at greater risk of ending up behind bars.

As far back as 1918, a published account of life in a Pennsylvania prison found an “extremely high prevalence” of past sexual victimization among women there. One 2020 review found that as many as 8 in 10 incarcerated women report having been sexually assaulted in some way. 

That compares to about one in four in the general public.

Such assaults, some research suggests, can boost risk of substance use disorders and mental health issues, potentially leading to criminal activity.

Belknap has spent decades working in carceral institutions, conducting research and workshops, teaching college courses, and advocating for women, men and children behind bars. She’s heard the stories time and again.

She recalls one woman in a prison workshop telling her and the other participants how a childhood minister had raped her when she was five years old. He appeared at the prison where she was incarcerated years later asking for forgiveness. She told him: “I can’t do that. I feel like I never would have been here if you hadn’t done that to me.”

But while anecdotes are common, researchers struggle to get solid data because the Centers for Disease Control’s ongoing National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) does not include women living in mental institutions or prisons.

‘These are our moms, our sisters and our aunts’

For the newly published study, co-author Cathy McDaniels Wilson, an Ohio-based psychologist, set out to fill that gap.

In 2010, she distributed surveys to a random sample of women in Ohio’s four state prisons. Wilson sat down with women in small groups as they filled out the questionnaire,  which covered detailed measures of sexual violence, from unwanted kissing and touching to legal but inappropriate sexual coercion and rape.

Aware that the questions could be traumatizing, the researchers ensured that participants had access to counseling afterward.

Cathy Wilson

In all, 716 incarcerated women participated.

Many tearfully thanked Wilson afterward, saying they were grateful to finally be counted.

“We often don't think of being inclusive of those who are incarcerated, but it is important to look at the trajectory that may have gotten them there,” said Wilson. “Many of these women experience abuse in the home, end up running away, on drugs, engaged in prostitution or other activities. These are our moms, our sisters and our aunts.”

With no designated funding for the project, Belknap—a sexual assault survivor herself—made it her mission to continue cleaning and scouring the data, and ultimately got access to the NISVS data for the general population in Ohio for the same time period. Then she compared the two. 

“This is unprecedented. There’s never been a sexual abuse study that looks at the same geographic region at the same time asking very similar questions,” said Belknap.

The study found that, across every one of the 13 comparable measures of sexual violence analyzed, women in Ohio prisons were significantly more likely to experience sexual violence than women in surrounding communities. This gap was typically widest for the most severe sexual abuses.

Specifically, 17% of women in the general population reported that they had been raped at some point. Among incarcerated women, that number was 70%. Nearly one-third of incarcerated women reported being raped before age 11, compared to less than 2% of those who were not incarcerated. Half of incarcerated women reported being raped by age 18, more than 10 times what women in surrounding communities reported.

Across both samples, women who were raped before age 11 were 15% less likely to graduate from high school.

A call for more support

The study looked at only one year in one state, Belknap notes.

"But to be able to document this in such detail, no matter what time period it is from, is so important,” she said.

She and Wilson, who now counsels sexual violence survivors in her private practice, are confident that if they were to do the survey again today, the results would be similar.

They urge other researchers to follow their lead and begin including incarcerated women across the country as they track sexual violence in the U.S.

Wilson and Belknap also call for greater support for survivors of all ages, both inside and outside of prison.

“Every time I am in a carceral facility I have this feeling well up,” said Belknap, who credits therapy, which she was fortunate enough to have access to, for getting her back on track after her own rape history. “I think ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’”