**5.2 Data collection**

24 Sexual Abuse – Breaking the Silence

experiences. Second, Yehuda and colleagues (1995) found a positive association between childhood trauma combined with current experiences of age-related stress and the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms among older adults in the community. Third, Hiskey and colleagues (2008) report that older adults older adults in the community, who were childhood trauma survivors, experienced later life reactivation of traumatic memories, which had intense and vivid aspects with the same subjective potency as the original traumatic event. In sum, the age-related stressors that incarcerated adults are coping with while in prison, such as increased risk of sexual victimization, can likely trigger earlier traumatic memories and experiences leading to significant impairment and potential post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Research on trauma in the criminal justice population has commonly examined sexual victimization (e.g., Harlow, 1999; Maschi et al., 2011). These prior studies primarily document whether or not a sexual victimization has occurred or not. We lack information about the various types of sexual victimization (from minor to severe types), and the age or developmental period at which it occurred. There has been little exploration of older adults' life-course subjective experiences at the time of occurrence of sexual victimization and currently while living through later life in prison. There also is a dearth of knowledge on how these different types of sexual victimization are related to sexual offending among

Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive study is to examine patterns of sexual abuse over the life-course, and temporal subjective experiences, both past and present, of sexual abuse among a sample of incarcerated older adults. It also provides a preliminary analysis of the data that examines the relationship between the different subtypes of trauma and sexual offendings. Research in this area can help expose the unexplored dimensions of sexual abuse in this largely neglected population. These findings have significance for improving trauma-informed responses among older adults, especially while in prison. As a result of examining this data, the need for effective trauma assessment in the correctional system, including specific sexual victimization assessment, along with efficacious trauma treatment modalities, is underscored. The urgency and magnitude of this public health problem is highlighted and the promise of treatment that can be used to interrupt the cycle of

This cross-sectional correlational design used a stratified random sample of older (age 50 and above) offenders drawn from a state correctional department's administrative databases. There were 667 participants that completed a self report mail survey that used a

This study was conducted in September 2010 in 13 prison facilities across a statewide department of correction (DOC) located in the northeast United States. Of approximately 25,000 prisoners housed in this correctional system in January 2010, approximately 6% (n=1,500) were aged 50 and older. Information to create the sampling frame included the DOC administrative records data for State Bureau of Identification (SBI) number and age.

revictimization among these vulnerable older adults in prison.

modified version of the Life Stressors Checklist-Revised (LSC-R).

**4. Purpose of book chapter** 

older adults in prison.

**5. Study methods** 

**5.1 Research design** 

The Dillman et al. (2009) method for mailed surveys was used to maximize response rates. Specifically, potential participants received: (1) a letter of invitation; (2) a packet with a cover letter, consent form, survey, and a self-addressed electronically stamped envelope (SASE) seven days later; (3) two thank you cards and reminders sent seven days apart that included an enclosed self-addressed envelope to request a survey replacement.

#### **5.3 Constructs and study measures**

Sexual victimization was measured using the 5 item subscale of the 31-item Life Stressors Checklist (LSC-R) (McHugo et al., 2005). The LSC-R sexual abuse subscale estimates the frequency of lifetime sexual abuse which is consistent with DSM IV-TR Criterion A for post trauma stress symptoms (APA, 2000). The LSC-R has good psychometric properties, including for use with diverse age groups and criminal justice populations. Researchers have reported that the LSC-R has demonstrated good criterion-related validity for detecting traumatic events, such as sexual abuse, among prisoners (McHugo et al., 2005). For example, McHugo et a1. (2005) collected data on 2,729 women in which a test-retest sample was completed on a subset of 186 women who completed the measure on average 7 days later. Kappa's range averaged .70 for different items.

#### **5.3.1 Objective occurrences of sexual victimization**

The LSC-R enables the measurement of 'objective' sexual abuse, which is defined in this study as whether or not one or more types of sexual abuse have occurred. Sexual abuse experiences are defined as those objective events that are consistent with DSM IV-TR Criterion A for PTSD (APA, 2000). Participants endorsed across 5 items as to whether or not each of these events occurred (0 = no; 1 = yes). These items included sexual touch before and after the age of 16, sexual harassment, and sexual assault before and after the age of 16 and were operationalized as follows.


Sexual Abuse Histories Among Incarcerated Older Adult Offenders: A Descriptive Study 27

reported having no high school diploma and 30% reported serving in the military. As for family, about 24% of participants reported currently being married or partnered. Furthermore, most participants reported having children (80%), and over half reported

About one third of participants reported having a mental health diagnosis (36%) or a drug or alcohol problem (36%). The majority had serious offenses, including sex offenses (26%) and violent offenses (64%). On average participants served 132 months (or 11 years). Over half of the participants were expected to be released from prison within one year (37%) or 2 to 5 years (26%); while approximately 10% were expected to be released within 6 to 10 years

Table 1 presents the findings on the sexual victimization experience of the study sample. Both inappropriate sexual touch and assault were found to be twice as common before the age of 16 compared to after the age of 16. More specifically, descriptive analyses revealed that 21.9% of the participants reported being a victim of inappropriate sexual touch before the age of 16 compared to 9.4% of the participants reported experiencing inappropriate sexual touch after the age of 16. Similarly, 18.5% reported forced sexual assault before the age of 16, while 9.1% reported sexual assault after the age of 16. The lifetime occurrence of sexual harassment was reported by approximately 1 out of 10 participants. That is, 12.9% of

As for age of sexual victimization, the data revealed that childhood sexual abuse began at an average age of 10 with a standard deviation of 4.4 for sexual touch and 3.6 for sexual assault. The average age reported for sexual harassment was 18.6 (sd = 12.4). With regard to the subjective experiences of sexual touch or assault before or after age 16, most participants reported experiencing 'horror felt at the time' (ranging from 79.2%-89.1%). Furthermore, prior sexual touch and sexual assault appeared to have a lingering psychological effect. Many participants also reported that in the past year they felt 'moderately to extremely bothered by the incident in the past year' (ranging from 61.8% - 75.4%). In comparison to sexual touch and victimization, slightly less participants who experienced sexual harassment reported that they perceived that someone could have gotten hurt at the time (36.5%), felt horror at the time

**6.2 Sexual victimization: Objective and subjective experiences** 

participants endorsed having experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime.

(62.7%), and were moderately to extremely bothered by it in the past year (55.1%).

Average Age First Occurred

Traumatic Events % N M SD % N % N % N 1. Sexual Touch < age 16 21.9 132 10.1 4.4 56.9 74 85.5 106 65.2 86 2. Sexual Assault < age 16 18.5 117 9.9 3.6 62.1 72 86.7 98 69.0 80 3. Sexual Harassment 12.9 78 18.6 12.4 36.5 27 62.7 47 55.1 43 4. Sexual Touch > age 16 9.4 57 16.6 9.5 64.9 37 89.1 49 75.4 43 5. Sexual Assault > age 16 9.1 55 19.6 11.1 62.7 32 79.2 42 61.8 34 Table 1. Descriptive statistics for the Occurrence of Trauma and Mean Scores for Age First Occurred, Believe Someone would get hurt, Felt Horror at the Time, Moderately to

Believe Someone Could Get Hurt

Horror Felt at Time

Moderately to Extremely Bothered in Past

Year

Objective Occurrences

Extremely Bothered by it Past Year

having grandchildren (62%).

and 17% after eleven or more years.


#### **5.3.2 Age of occurrence and subjective experiences of sexual victimization**

If participants endorsed 'yes' to an objective occurrence of traumatic or stressful life experiences, three follow-up items asked participants about their age and related post traumatic stress symptoms. As for age, it was measured as a continuous variable and participants were asked, "How old were you when this happened?" As for post traumatic stress symptoms, participants were asked: (1) "at the time of the event did you believe that you or someone else could be killed or seriously harmed?" (2) At the time of the event did you experience feelings of intense helplessness, fear, or horror?" Participants could respond yes or no to these two questions and they were measured as dichotomous/nominal level variables.

The LSC-R also includes a subscale for participants' 'subjective' impressions of sexual abuse victimization. For each of the types of sexual victimization experienced, participants were asked their current subjective impression of these events by asking them to rate each type of traumatic and stressful life event on the degree to which it was bothersome within this past year. Each item was measured using a five point Likert scale from 1 = not at all to 5 = extremely.

#### **5.3.3 Sexual offense history**

Sexual offense history was measured using the following self-report survey item: "Have you ever been charged with a sexual offense?" Participants could respond 'yes' or 'no'.

#### **5.4 Data analysis**

Descriptive statistics were used to examine the sociodemographic characteristics of sexual assault. A series of chi square analyses also were conducted to explore whether earlier life sexual abuse victimization (e.g., sexual touch before age 16, sexual assault before age 16, sexual touch after age 16, sexual assault after age 16, and sexual harassment) was related to the older adults' self-report sexual offense histories. All variables were dichotomous consisting of yes or no response categories.
