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.