The centrality of relationships in context: a comparison of factors that predict the sexual and non-sexual victimization of transgender women in prisons for men

ABSTRACT This research draws on original data to empirically assess how an array of factors – including features of the self, the prison environment, and prisoners’ interactions with each other – shape the probability of transgender women in prisons for men experiencing sexual victimization and non-sexual physical assault. Logistic regression analyses reveal that, in general, the same factors that predict sexual assault per se predict sexual victimization more generally as well as non-sexual assault. The most consistently powerful predictor is an interactional variable: whether transgender women report having been in a consensual sexual relationship with another prisoner, which consistently approximately triples the odds of all three categories of victimization (i.e., sexual assault, sexual victimization, and non-sexual assault). The prominence of this durable interactional predictor points to lifestyle and routines as the most proximate influence on victimization – sexual or otherwise. This, in turn, allows for both a more robust understanding of the social organization of violence and victimization within prison settings as well as a more robust understanding of the relationships between different types of victimization.