A Veneer of Idyllic but [Un]safe Dirt Roads: Young Women’s Pathways to Safety and Belonging behind Prison Walls

ABSTRACT

Many victimized young women enter the justice system as a product of their abuses – oftentimes, a result of cultural norms allowing structural violence. Coercive sexual environments create communities that support, and even encourage, sexual abuse of young women. To understand rural CSE pathways in the abuse-to-prison pipeline, interviews with incarcerated young women (n = 16), as well as community stakeholders (n = 50) within a rural state, were conducted. Findings unveiled many young women feel safer in prison than their abusive rural communities while stakeholders appear ill-equipped to provide services. Practical implications to build resiliency within communities while preventing system-involvement are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Coercive sexual environments
• rural communities
• prison refuge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This classification system has five categories based on the number of persons per square mile (ppsm). The current state average was 35.6 ppsm. Of the 105 counties, 36 were categorized as Frontier, 34 Rural, 19 Densely-settled Rural, ten Semi-Urban, and six are Urban (The University of Kansas, 2018).

2. Metro to non-metro classification ranges from 1–9 (1 = most metro; 9 = most non-metro). With 105 total counties, 18% were metro and 82% were non-metro (Economic Research Service, 2013b).

3. Medically Underserved Areas/Populations are areas or populations designated by Health Resources and Services Administration as having too few primary care providers, high infant mortality, high poverty, or a high elderly population.

4. Extension Agents are part of a statewide network of educators sharing unbiased, research-based information and expertise on issues important to the state to address global food systems, water, health, developing tomorrow’s leaders, and community vitality.