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| 1 in 7 kids report sex abuse at McLaughlin |
| By adn.com |
| Published: 01/08/2010 |
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One in seven juveniles incarcerated at McLaughlin Youth Center report being sexually victimized, and most of the perpetrators are staff members, a new national study by the U.S. Justice Department says. The rate of sexual victimization at McLaughlin, Alaska's biggest juvenile offender facility, was 15 percent, just above the national rate at similar facilities of 12 percent, the Bureau of Justice Statistics study said. Perhaps the most startling findings were the high rates of alleged victimization by staff -- 11 percent at McLaughlin and about 10 percent nationally. Of those who alleged staff sexual misconduct around the country, 95 percent said the culprit was a female worker. "What's surprising is how many kids were saying these things were happening without us knowing it," said Dean Williams, a superintendent at McLaughlin, in Anchorage. Officials already have been working on the issue and now are looking at what else they need to do, he said. Alaska officials said staff members who engage in sexual contact with residents will be fired and if possible, prosecuted. They pointed to the case of a woman who had worked in McLaughlin's supply department. She was accused in 2006 of forcing a 17-year-old boy to engage in sex at McLaughlin, as well as off grounds. The boy told investigators he was scared and embarrassed. The woman pleaded to a single misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to an online court record. On the national survey, residents were asked whether they had been forced into sexual activity with other youths during the previous 12 months at the institution, and also whether they had had any sexual contact with staff, willingly or not, during the same period. In Alaska, it's a crime for someone in a position of authority to engage in any kind of sexual contact with a minor. "It's not trivial," said Allen Beck, the study's lead author at the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The high rate of reported staff misconduct surprised researchers. Beck said it's far above what adult prisoners report. But other findings matched the results of earlier studies involving verified abuse reports, such as the fact that youths who are detained for longer periods are more likely to report sexual misconduct, Beck said. Juveniles filled out the surveys anonymously on touch-screen laptops, and researchers acknowledged there was no way to verify their allegations or pursue abusers. But even if some lied about sexual abuse, others likely remained silent, the study said. And some surveys were thrown out, for instance because the youth reported an unbelievable amount of abuse, or had inconsistent answers. "You cannot discount this out of the gate by any stretch," Williams said. At McLaughlin, 53 juveniles completed the survey. They were among 9,198 juveniles from 166 state facilities and 29 local or private facilities that participated between June 2008 and April 2009. Among some of the other key findings nationally:
McLaughlin's own resident surveys in 2008 and 2009 found a sexual victimization rate of 4 percent, said Steve McComb, Alaska's director of juvenile justice. Those surveys, part of an effort to measure and improve performance, ask one question about forced sexual contacts. McComb said he was concerned about the new study. But he also noted that nearly all the youths who alleged staff misconduct nationally contended it was with a female. "Ninety-five percent of the kids said it was women. I thought that was a little high. It made me question the validity. How much is truth? How much is fantasy?" A number of the cases of staff misconduct at McLaughlin over the years did involve women, Williams said. Read More. |
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