Previous studies have found that juveniles housed in adult facilities were at greater risk of sexual assault than adults. In this study, however, 16- and 17-year-olds housed in adult jails and prisons did not report significantly higher rates of abuse.

Children’s advocates and some researchers dispute this finding, arguing that young people may have been less likely to be candid on a computer-based survey because they feared that the authorities might be monitoring their answers. Some critics have urged the Bureau of Justice Statistics to repeat the investigation using live interviewers from outside the corrections system.

The study found that some institutions had rates of sexual abuse at least twice the national average. It singled out more than 40 prisons and local jails. In addition, it cited two military facilities and a jail on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.