A review of prison research conducted between 1986 and 2000 indicates that the proportion of women who reported being a victim of bullying ranged from 6 to 41 percent, and the proportion who reported being a bully was 11 to 67 percent. Types of bullying done by women in prisons tend to be nonphysical and aimed toward inflicting psychological pain or manipulation. Methods of bullying include verbal taunts and threats, gossip with other inmates intended to diminish the status and acceptance of the victim, theft of the victim's personal items, and sexual bullying. Bullying may be designed to obtain medications from other inmates when such medications can provide desired side effects, or to keep inmates quiet about the bully's drug use. Other reasons for bullying are to obtain sexual favors and to keep victims quiet about the bully's rule violations. Research has shown that female bullies in prison tend to have lower scores for empathy than nonbullies, a history of aggression and violence, and also a history of having been victimized themselves. Bullying victims tend to be introverts, physically weak, younger, first-time inmates, drug users, of lower intelligence, and sex offenders. One implication of these research findings is that recognition of bullying as a problem in women's prisons must focus on the more subtle and indirect methods of bullying that involve psychological manipulation and threats to the mental health and rehabilitation of bullying victims. 5 notes and 58 references