trauma reaction. In Patricia Resick's article titled, "The Trauma of Rape and the Criminal Justice System", she addresses a therapy study of fear in rape victims and states, "it was not uncommon for women who were ten or twenty years postrape to seek help for continuing rape-related problems." Sexually transmitted infections A prevalent issue that occurs because of prison rape is the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, in December 2008, a total of 21,987 inmates in both federal and state prisons were HIV positive or were confirmed to have AIDS. Prisons and jails currently hold significantly high rates of HIV compared to the general population at large. There is evidence that rape and other forms of sexual violence assist in transmitting STDs. Violent forms of unprotected vaginal or anal intercourse have the highest risk of transmitting an STD. Especially for the receptive partner, outcomes of coerced sex tear the membrane of the anus or vagina and cause profuse bleeding. The unfortunate reality is that "prison rape incidents often involve multiple perpetrators" which aids in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and, "unlike sexual assault in the general community, a person who is raped in prison may be unable to remove him- or herself from the vicinity of the perpetrator or perpetrators and thus may be raped repeatedly while incarcerated". Despite the increasing number of prisoners with sexually transmitted diseases, reliable statistics on prisoners who have received STDs due to prison rape are unavailable. Many reports of sexual abuse of either coerced vaginal or anal intercourse remain unreported. It is important to note, "racial and ethnic discrimination, low socioeconomic status, migrant status, mental illness, and housing instability can also, independently or with each other, increase the risk of detention and HIV infection". Transgender people notoriously, "face high risks of HIV transmission and incarceration as a result of criminalization, discrimination in health settings, punitive law enforcement, and social marginalization". Women that are transgender, "are [specifically] subject to high levels of police abuse, including profiling as sex workers and sexual exploitation and physical and verbal abuse from guards and male inmates while in detention". Mass overcrowding has become a serious issue within federal and state prisons, which greatly contributes to the prevalence of sexual abuse. The prison population has dramatically increased in the 2000s due to policies such as increasing sentencing laws and the