Gender-Responsive Sexual Violence Propensity Assessment for Female Offenders

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Program provides funding to states, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribes to support comprehensive approaches within state, tribal, and local adult and juvenile correctional facilities to prevent, detect, and respond to incidences of sexual victimization. The PREA Program provides funding to eligible applicants for demonstration projects within confinement settings, including adult prisons and jails; juvenile facilities; community corrections facilities; law enforcement lockups and other temporary holding facilities; and tribal detention facilities. Applicants must successfully communicate a comprehensive approach to the prevention, detection, and response to the incidence of sexual abuse and clearly prioritize gaps which are as of yet unaddressed, either programmatically or through changes in policy and procedures, as they relate to implementation of the PREA standards. The goal of this program is to assist local adult and juvenile facilities in implementing prevention, identification, and response mechanisms that will reduce the incidence of sexual abuse in confinement facilities.

The Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC) will use their FY14 PREA grant funding to develop and validate a Gender-Responsive Sexual Violence Propensity Assessment for female offenders. Additional goals of the project are: 1) Research, develop, and implement a Gender Responsive Sexual Violence Propensity Assessment for Female Offenders; 2) Promote the accurate and consistent utilization of the assessment tool and resulting data collection by implementation through the automated offender records system; 3) Research the impact of mental health issues on the assessment factors required under the PREA standards, 4) Accommodate for these impacts in the Assessment Tool; and 5) Validate the female Assessment Tool.

CA/NCF