University of Southern California Law School Legal Studies Working Paper Series

Year  Paper 

E-race-ing Gender: The Racial Construction of

Kim S. Buchanan∗

∗University of Southern California Gould School of Law, [email protected] This working paper is hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) and may not be commer- cially reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder. http://law.bepress.com/usclwps-lss/art84 Copyright c 2011 by the author. E-race-ing Gender: The Racial Construction of Prison Rape

Kim S. Buchanan

Abstract

Prison rape is a form of gender violence. Men’s institutionalize a toxic form of masculinity when they foster homophobia, physical violence and an insti- tutional culture that requires inmates to prove their masculinity by fighting. Staff and inmate abusers alike target small, young, effeminate, gay, bisexual and trans- gender inmates. According to recent nationwide survey data, the two factors that most strongly predict an inmate’s risk of sexual are (1) prior sexual victim- ization, and (2) gay, bisexual or transgender identity. Nonetheless, prison rape continues to be understood in accordance with an inaccurate stereotype that it is typically black-on-white. The results of six recent nationwide surveys consis- tently refute the stereotype: there is no evidence that white are targeted for . The unsubstantiated racial obscures genuine racial disparities in sexual victimization that are revealed by survey after survey: in- mate abusers disproportionately target multiracial prisoners, while staff abusers disproportionately target black prisoners. These counter-stereotypical racial dis- parities have been completely ignored in prison policy and prison-rape discourse. The stereotype may affect the institutional response to sexual abuse allegations: although most sexual abuse victims are nonwhite, an overwhelming majority of al- legations that prison investigators find “substantiated” involve white victims. The racial rape myth deflects policy attention from the gendered institutional practices that foster prison rape. Most prison rapists are staff, not inmates; the factors that most affect an inmate’s risk of victimization are gendered, not racial. The per- sistence of the racial rape myth in the face of contradictory empirical data raises important questions about the rule of law at the intersection of race and gender. These are questions I explore and expand upon in the article I am currently work- ing on, Engendering Race, 59 UCLA L. Rev. – (forthcoming, 2012). Hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press http://law.bepress.com/usclwps-lss/art84 Hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press http://law.bepress.com/usclwps-lss/art84 Hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press http://law.bepress.com/usclwps-lss/art84 Hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press http://law.bepress.com/usclwps-lss/art84 Hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press http://law.bepress.com/usclwps-lss/art84 Hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press http://law.bepress.com/usclwps-lss/art84