edwards

Chapter One contains the research problem, purpose, and framework of a phenomenological study on the lived experiences of former incarcerated adults with sexual victimization and the enforcement of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003 in American correctional facilities (Pia, 2024). This chapter forms the basis of the study as it gives a detailed background of the subject, positionality of the researcher, statement of the problem and purpose, overview of the significance of the study, the structure of the research questions, the definition of key terms as well as provides an overview and map of further chapters.

The research uses transcendental phenomenological design to investigate the perceptions and experiences of sexual victimization of formerly imprisoned people regarding the application of PREA-based policies. The research fills the knowledge gaps concerning the perspectives of inmates towards the real-life application of PREA over 20 years after its signing due to the focus on the voices of the people directly impacted by it. The chapter starts with an elaborate background that incorporates historical, societal and theoretical frameworks based on recent empirical research (most of which are not older than five years old). It subsequently moves on to the philosophical assumptions and inspirations of the researcher before a narrowed problem statement is sketched using existing Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) data and peer-reviewed literature. The purpose statement is consistent with the phenomenological approach, and the significance section shows both the theoretical and practical contributions. Based on the problem, purpose, research questions are formulated that are backed by appropriate literature. Operationally defined key terms are provided and the end of the chapter is accompanied by a conclusion and a roadmap to guide the reader on the overall structure of the dissertation.

This introduction chapter is critical in setting out the intellectual rationale and methodological coherence of the research, making sure that all the other chapters of the research literature review, research design, findings, and conclusions make logical sense because of the premise that was established in this introductory chapter. This systematic presentation shows how the chapter meets the doctoral requirements of rigor, ethics, and the impact of the study at the Liberty University in criminal justice and criminology.

The background section summarizes the most pertinent literature to give the problem of the research historical, social, and theoretical background. The contexts are analyzed explicitly, and it is directly related to the phenomenological investigation of lived experiences of the inmates of sexual victimization and implementation of PREA.

Historical Context

On September 4, 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) that initiated a turning point in the federal reaction to an extensive number of sexual abuse claims in U.S. prisons (Pia, 2024). PREA set the standard of zero-tolerance of prison rape and required the systematic data on sexual victimization to be collected with the help of BJS. It also necessitated the formulation of national standards addressing detection, prevention, and response of sexual abuse in the prisons, jails, and juvenile centers. The early intervention was centered on administrative changes, personnel training, and reporting systems, though there was an uneven compliance at the beginning of the problem across the states and facilities.

By mid 2010s, the BJS data was pointing to ongoing problems. During 2016-2018, administrators of correctional facilities identified 4,895 substantiated cases of inmate sexual victimization, with half of these offenses committed by fellow inmates and a half carried out by staff members; sexual harassment was the most prevalent crime (Williams, 2025). Only a small percentage of the sexual misconduct cases harassment cases were the case that staff sued. These statistics highlighted that PREA had a weakness in policy to practice translation. According to the 2023-24 surveys of adult prisoners in state and federal correctional facilities, 2.3% of prisoners were sexually victimized by prison staff sexually victimized fellow inmates and 2.2% (Okoro, 2024). Although these percentages can be considered as indicators of some stabilization in comparison with the previous decades, they still indicate thousands of people each year within a system, which accommodates more than 1.2 million people. The COVID-19 pandemic made data collection post-2020 difficult as it limited access to facilities and changed reporting procedures, introducing gaps in longitudinal tracking.

The ancient history of the implementation of the PREA has shown that there is a tendency to underreport, and there is always a fear of retaliation, and uneven application of the law. The graphic reports of inmate-on-inmate rape and staff misconduct were recorded in early commission hearings (2004-2009), but the change has been in gradual stages. Recent reviews, including those of the state-level compliance, point to the fact that even though PREA has enhanced awareness and training, it has not eradicated the issue. Indicatively, the research on women facilities observes the unintended effects, such as the weaponization of the PREA complaints by making false accusations (Dunton et al., 2024; Darcy & Johnson, 2024). The policy framework that has been historically developed, therefore, evidences its progressive progress toward sexual victimization awareness, but only partially successful in eliminating the issue, which is why the phenomenological research of the lived reality of the statistics is necessary.

Social Context

Sexual victimization in prisons exists in a wider social ecology which is influenced by power relations, stigma and institutional culture. Prisoners are disproportionately exposed to multiple types of vulnerabilities such as previous trauma, mental health issues, and socioeconomic marginalization. Women, LGBTQ+, and racial minorities are particularly vulnerable women are said to be 30 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in prison than in the community (Cain et al., 2022). PREA has socially affected the climate at the facilities by requiring reporting hotlines, staff background checks, and victim support services. But the qualitative narratives indicate that these efforts are accompanied by the culture of secrecy in which the prisoners are afraid of retaliation or non-belief.

The recent social researches lay stress on human cost, prison stories talk about solitude, humiliation, and lack of trust on institutional power, which worsen the reentry difficulties and societal acceptance (Edison, 2024). The effects on family and the community are not limited to the individual level and victimization leads to trauma cycle which affects the children and partners and neighborhoods in the event of release. Furthermore, the social stigma associated with the sex abuse in prisons discourages reporting, which further remains unreported. Researchers of correctional administrators and inmates emphasize the lack of perception: administrators consider PREA to increase safety measures, but inmates regularly complain that policies are either not always implemented or are applied in a punishmentary manner (Weaver et al., 2025). The overall climate in women prisons had improved, although they also reported that PREA was used as a manipulation tool between peers and staff (Weaver et al., 2025). These social relations, which include power, trust, and vulnerability, directly shape the proposed study in terms of lived experiences, which uncovers how PREA is working in the realities of incarceration and not policy documents in isolation.

Theoretical Context

The theoretical frame is based mostly on the routine activity theory (RAT) and the rational choice theory, which has been extended to the topic of prison sexual victimization. According to RAT, crime arises when a motivated offender, an appropriate target and unavailable capable guardianship intersect both in time and space (Hayes & Maher, 2024). The prisons provide routines in the correctional facilities which, unintentionally, support such convergences: limited guardianship (small shifts, solitary confinement units), motivated criminals (those who take advantage of power imbalances), and appropriate targets (weak inmates without protection networks). Some recent uses of RAT to sex offenses within prisons have proven it useful.

Rational choice theory is an additional theory to RAT, focusing on the decision-making of offenders, balancing costs (threat of being caught, penalties) and rewards (fulfillment, control and dominance, or material rewards) (Rana, 2025). Within the prison, either consensual or coercive sexual acts tend to happen after the rational calculation such as commissary items, safety, or companionship. The PREA standards also aim to enhance guardianship by training and reporting but can change the cost-benefit calculations inadvertently, without removing opportunities. Recent research combines these theories with carceral-specific theories, including deprivation and importation theories, to describe the reasons victimization is perpetuated despite PREA. The theories will be the prism through which the phenomenological results will be placed to enable the study to build on the existing knowledge by including the subjective experiences of the individuals involved in the convergence of motivated offenders, targets, and gaps in guardianship.

As the researcher, I am driven to pursue this study due to a professional interest in ensuring criminal justice reform and a personal discovery that all humans have human dignity, irrespective of whether they are incarcerated or not. Having worked as a victim advocate and a correctional policy analyst in the United States I have personally experienced the lack of correlation between policy requirements and realities. This experience sparked interest in those voices that are frequently missing in PREA assessments, the voices of the incarcerated themselves. I have a constructivist ontological assumption: reality is multifaceted and socially constructed by individual experiences instead of being singular and objective. Epistemologically, I think that knowledge is produced in-collaboration and interpretation and that can be best described by deep phenomenological inquiry. I appreciate transparent and participant-based narratives that respect voice and context. I am axiologically oriented to justice, empathy, and empowerment and am inclined to see research as a means of advocacy and not a dispassionate observation.

These premises are also congruent with a constructivist paradigm that informs the transcendental phenomenological design that brackets preconceptions and focuses on what lived experiences entail. I recognize some possible biases due to my advocacy training, including a propensity to take an institutional system critical; nonetheless, I will counter these with the use of intense bracketing, member checking, and reflexive journaling. The fact that I am a non-participant researcher that is not part of the correctional system makes me more objective, but I must be cautious when going through the power relationship in the recruitment and interviewing. Through such philosophical positions, the study will be participant-driven and ethical in nature, and add value to the criminal justice body of knowledge in an authentic way.

The issue is that although the implementation of PREA lasted more than 20 years, sexual victimization is still repetitive and little is done regarding the matter as there is little empirical research on the subjective lived experience of victims. The recent statistics reflect the size: in 2023-24, staff sexually victimized 2.3 percent of adult prisoners sexually victimized inmates and 2.2 percent, which translates to thousands of cases each year within state and federal systems (Okoro, 2024). Previous statistics (2016-2018) reported 4895 substantiated cases, the most common being sexual harassment, and poor staff accountability (381% misconduct, 4.5% harassment). Such numbers are maintained even in the light of the zero-tolerance requirement of PREA, the standards of the country, and the obligatory reporting.

Recent studies have discussed the administrative views, compliance issues, and unhealthy consequences like false allegations in women facilities (Weaver, 2025). Quantitative BJS reports use incidence rates and a few qualitative studies can capture the opinion of staff or administrators. The literature has a fatal flaw: the almost complete lack of the phenomenological accounts provided by the former prisoners themselves. Current research tends to utilize surveys or government data which do not exhibit the subtle, contextual nature of how inmates are victimized and how they perceive PREA protocols in their day-to-day lives in prison. This empirical gap is important in that it requires knowing the lived realities, or what the safety feels like, what the barriers to reporting entail, how effective this policy is, and how trauma can be produced in the long-term, which cannot be achieved without knowledge of the lived realities. The existing study lacks depth as it does not contribute to statistical patterns to a deeper understanding of humans, which can help determine more effective, trauma-informed intervention. Thus, the targeted issue that this research can help to solve is the insufficient phenomenological insight into the way in which former prisoners are sexually victimized and subjected to PREA enforcement in American prisons.

This transcendental phenomenological research is aimed at comprehending the experience of sexual victimization and the enforcement of the Prison Rape Elimination Act to former prisoners in the United States. At this point of the study, lived experiences will be broadly demarcated as the subjective, situational perceptions and meanings the participants of the study accord their experience of victimization and PREA-related policies, procedures, and results. The theory that will be used in this study is the routine activity theory because it provides the way motivated criminals, appropriate targets and the lack of guardianship converge in prison settings to facilitate victimization and sheds light on how PREA is trying to improve guardianship by implementing structural and procedural changes. This theory puts participant narratives in a wider context of opportunity structures of incarceration, which enables the findings to be applied to theoretical insights of victimization on formal institutionalized settings.

The significance of the study section contains a description of the contributions that the study makes to the knowledge base or discipline, both theoretically and empirically (i.e., How does it relate to other studies that are similar or that investigate the same issue?)

In theory, the research will add to the body of literature on criminal justice and victimology by using routine activity theory and rational choice approaches to understand phenomenological data and fulfill the demands of integrated micro-level understanding of prison victimization. It enhances the knowledge by prioritizing the voices of the inmates, which might lead to the improvement of current frameworks to be more able to explain the subjective perceptions of guardianship and gaps in policy implementation. The research empirically addresses an empirical gap in the literature on PREA assessments, with quantitative incidence data prevailing and qualitative depth on the perspective of affected persons lacking (Weaver, 2025).

In practice, the results will guide correctional administrators, policymakers, and advocacy organizations to improve the PREA training, reporting systems, and support services. The research may inform trauma-informed reforms by exposing barriers and facilitators in the eyes of the inmates to enhance facility safety, retaliation, and successful reentry. At a broader level, findings can have an impact on federal audits, state compliance audits and community reentry programs that will eventually lead to a lower recidivism rate due to unaddressed trauma and community safety. The value of the study is that it may help humanize the policy assessment and initiate evidence-based change to the benefit of incarcerated populations, correctional employees, and society in general.

The questions used in the research are based on the problem and purpose statements and will be answered with the help of phenomenological data collection and analysis.

RQ1: How do adults who have been incarcerated previously discuss their experiences of sexual victimization in the US correctional facilities? This question is based on the flavor of subjective experiences of participants, which is supported by the literature that recorded the continuation of victimization despite PREA. It attempts to reveal the contextual information that is not found in aggregate statistics.

RQ2: How do former prisoners understand the application and success of PREA policies and procedures in the prevention and response to sexual victimization? This question is justified by literature on the administrative and the inmate perceptual gaps. because it examines whether zero-tolerance norms have a relationship with a perceived sense of safety.

RQ3: What are the perceived barriers and facilitators of sexual victimization reporting by former incarcerated adults, and how this affects their overall experiences? The question is based on the research showing the fear of retaliation and weaponization of policy (Weaver, 2025), which allows studying effective reporting relationships.

All questions are not yes/no questions and each question will go through the in-depth interview; this will be to cover all the aspects that will be discussed in subsequent chapters.

Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA): The Federal law that was passed in 2003 with zero-tolerance standards, data collection rules, and national standards of prevention, detection and reaction to sexual abuse in correctional institutions (Smith et al., 2023).

Lived experiences: Phenomena subjective, first-person perception and the meanings and contextual understandings that people accord to phenomena as studied using phenomenological approaches (Lumma, 2023).

Formerly imprisoned adults: Previously incarcerated adults released out of state prisons or federal prisons who will be used as participants to guarantee their access to ethics and retrospective reflection.

Transcendental phenomenology: Transcendental phenomenology is a qualitative research design that aims at describing the fundamental structures of lived experiences and bracketing researcher biases (Bailey, 2024).

Routine activity theory: A theory of criminology that states that victimization is a result of the interaction of motivated criminals, ideal target and the lack of capable guardians.…