Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Keywords

sexual violence, women's prisons, sexual abuse, sterilization, strip searches

Abstract

Sexual violence—rape, sexual assault, strip and body cavity searches, surveillance, and reproductive abuse—is a regular occurrence in women’s prisons. Some of that violence is clearly illegal; some occupies a legally gray middle ground; and some is considered essential to the operation of the prison system. All of it, however, could violate the law if the victims were not incarcerated. Sexual violence is so pervasive within women’s prisons that incarceration can only be understood as a form of sexualized violence. Given the certainty that people incarcerated in women’s prisons will experience some form of sexual abuse, continued incarceration can only be justified if, as a nation, we are willing to ignore that sexual violence is a cornerstone of carceral punishment—because the only way to prevent sexualized violence in women’s prisons is to eradicate prisons.

Publication Citation

72 Wayne Law Review 83 (2026).

Disciplines

Civil Rights and Discrimination | Law | Law and Gender | Law Enforcement and Corrections

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