The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA): Snitching, Sexuality, and Normalizing Deviance

Abstract

The normalization of deviance in the form of prison rape finds common themes in media, rape myths, and common discourse. However, these portrayals fail to include real world policies and the perspectives of incarcerated populations. As such, the normalization of deviance is assessed in the context of the implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). A thematic analysis was conducted using qualitative survey responses from 407 males incarcerated in three medium-level security state prisons in the Southern United States. Surprisingly, respondents rejected stereotypical notions of sexuality (institutional deviancy) and snitching (cultural deviancy) surrounding prison rape. Rather, respondents favored standardized safety procedures and institutional responses designed to reduced risk, while also endorsing views that traditional snitching codes were not applicable to prison rape. This study provides implications for researchers and practitioners, particularly in the context of the implementation of PREA.

Carceral safety in a post-PREA era: An examination of perceptual indicators of safety among incarcerated persons in four southeast prisons

“…The few studies analyzing survey data on perceived safety and/or PREA attitudes among justice-involved persons tend to confine the evaluation to staff and/or administrator responses (Hensley et al, 2002;Hensley and Tewsbury, 2005;Moster and Jeglic, 2009;Rudes et al, 2021), data collected before the enactment of PREA (Struckman-Johnson et al, 2013;Tewksbury, 1989), or qualitative themes rather than empirical predictors (Smith and Dunton, 2022). According to the findings from this limited pool of research, wardens appear somewhat open to prison reform policies (Moster and Jeglic, 2009), staff perceive PREA as an administrative barrier (Rudes et al, 2021), incarcerated residents see value in effective risk assessments, better classification strategies, and quality safety programs (Smith and Dunton, 2022;Struckman-Johnson et al, 2013), and some physical attributes are related to fear of sexual assault (Tewksbury, 1989) and awareness of sexual coercion (Worley et al, 2010) in prison. While each of these studies contribute meaningfully to contemporary knowledge of the topic, none empirically assess predictors of perceived safety among prison residents since the inauguration of PREA.…”

Practice without prospect: The imaginary response to the recording and investigations of sexual assault in prison

“…Fowler et al's research (2010) indicated that new prisoners were more likely to self-report sexual victimisation; perhaps because of newly implemented reporting initiatives, or because they were less impacted by traditional views about ‘snitching’. Smith and Dunton (2022) concurred that prisoners in the southern states of the United States supported institutional prison mechanisms that reduced risks of prison rape and endorsed the view that reporting rape was widely supported among prisoners.…”