Sexual Abuse in Childhood and the Mentally Disordered Female Offender

This study examines the role that a history of child sexual abuse played in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders in a sample of 321 female offenders incarcerated in a maximum-security prison for women. The results show that a history of child sexual abuse increases the likelihood that an inmate would receive mental health treatment. Psychotropic medication is frequently prescribed in response to adjustment problems associated with childhood sexual abuse. White women who exhibit adjustment problems associated with a history of child sexual abuse are especially likely to be diagnosed as mentally disordered at admission and to be sent to the mental health unit for treatment. In the absence of a diagnosed mental disorder at admission, women who receive psychotropic medication to help them adjust to prison life are likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder later on.