Mandating sexual violence prevention within violent institutions

Kristin Bumiller and Noa Costom

Chapter 12 in Research Handbook on Gender, Violence and Law, 2026, pp 193-207 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the adverse effects of the implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in the United States. The adoption of PREA in 2003 led to the implementation of grievance systems for prisoners that failed to serve their purposes under the conditions of coercive control endemic to prison life. Despite what may appear to be the intent of these measures, to provide rights to prisoners to protect themselves from violence, PREA became the means to exert more control over and punish prisoners. We show how anti-violence measures are repurposed to achieve greater managerial control over prisoners and to put a more humane face on carceral violence. Our analysis describes what happens when feminist-inspired sexual violence measures become incorporated within systems of mass incarceration.

Keywords: Prison Rape Elimination Act; Prisons; Sexual violence prevention; United States of America; Social control; Carceral violence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035319398
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