We all know that our prisons are the final frontier for the socially rejected criminals and violent offenders. We know that our prisons are so overcrowded that the Supreme Court of California issued a court order to reduce the number of inmates. We know that since there are more inmates in prison the chance of getting rehabilitated is very slim. And we also know that the ratio of supervision of guard to inmate is extremely high. But do we know what goes on in our prisons and jails? We know we have prison gangs, drugs, assaults, robberies, and even murders in prison. But what happens when you mix an overcrowded prison or jail with violent, drug using, angry, abusive, gang related men with the average person who is in prison or jail for the first time. The result is an aggressive sexual act known as inmate rape. The fight against rape in our communities is doomed to failure and will continue so as long as it ignores the network of training grounds for rapists: our prisons, jails and reform schools. For too long, we have turned away from the rape crisis in these institutions, which now hold 1.3 million men and boys. In most of them, rape is an entrenched tradition considered by prisoners a legitimate way to `prove their manhood' and to satisfy sexual needs and the brutal desire for power. The exact number of sexually assaulted prisoners is unknown, but a conservative estimate, based on two decades of surveys, is that “more than 290,000 males are sexually assaulted behind bars every year. By comparison, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that there are 135,000 rapes of women a year nationwide, though many groups believe the number is higher.”(Mezey and King, 1995). Inmate rape is not a sexually motivated act but instead constitutes a sexual expression of aggression. Once victimized, a prisoner is marked as a continual target for sexual attack and is repeatedly subjected to gang rapes, or must trade submission to one or more men in exchange for protection from the rest. Very few of these rapes are ever reported to administrators, much less prosecuted. “If a prisoner is middle-class, not `street-wise,' not affiliated with a gang, not part of the racial or ethnic group that dominates his institution or held in a big city jail, he is likely to be a target.”(Scacco, 1992). The victims are usually heterosexuals who are forced into a passive sexual role, th...
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...Press (Chapter 4, “Male rape in institutional settings”).
2. Anthony M. Scacco, Jr., ed., Male Rape: A Casebook of Sexual Aggressions, 1992, NY:AMS.
3. Ben-David, S. (1993) Rape death and resurrection: Male reactions after disclosure of the secret of being a rape victim. Medicine and Law, 12, 181-189.
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7. People Organized to Stop the Rape of Imprisoned Persons (1998) Periodic newsletter, P.O. Box 632 Ft. Bragg, CA 95437.
8. Barden R. (1991). Prisons. FL, pgs. 24-29, 51-57.
9. Rothenberg, D. (1993) Sexual behavior in an abnormal setting. Corrective & Social Psychiatry, Methods & Therapy, 29(3), 78-81.
A pivotal point in female corrections was the implementation of the Arbour Report (Griffiths & Murdoch, 2014). This report recommended that an all male emergency response team should not be the first response, also, male correctional staff cannot be present while a strip search in being conducted (Griffiths & Murdoch, 2014). This report shaped corrections and it makes the female offenders accounted for since their rights were infringed.
Sexually transmitted diseases in prison are a byproduct of sexual victimization as well. Sexual Victimization can include rape, being submissive to a dominant figure, and choosing the least resistant path. According to previous statistics, four percent of inmates have been sexually victimized in a given year. More recently, Beck and Stroop (2017) found similar findings. In addition to measuring sexual victimization within a year’s time, they measure it by institution type. For federal and state facilities, combined four percent of its inmates have suffered from sexual victimization. The chance of being sexually assaulted by another inmate is 2%. The chances of being sexually victimized by staff are slightly higher at 2.4%. When separating the two, data shows that those in federal corrections systems have a higher chance of being sexually victimized
Finkelhor, D., Hotaling, G., Lewis, I., & Smith, C. (1990). Sexual abuse in a national survey of
...NG BLOCKS for Institutional Safety A Bibliography of Resources Available from the National Institute of Corrections Information Center Preventing Inmate Sexual Assault." colorado.gov. Ed. Barbara Krauth. Colorado Department of Public Safty, Oct. 2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Searles, Patricia and Berger, Ronald. Rape and Society: reading on problem of sexual assault. Westview Press, 1995
Burton, D. & Smith-Darden, J., North American Survey of Sexual Abuser Treatment and Models 2000, Brandon, VT: Safer Society Foundation, 2001.
Sexual assault of men in history is recognized as a means of humiliating opponents by conquering soldiers especially the Romans. It was used as a feature of sexual torture or aggression. Rape, in this case, is motivated by a wish to dominate and degrade the victim. Man on man rape is usually discussed when the incarceration is the topic due to social media and movies. Although nearly two-thirds of the male jail inmates who had been victimized, said the staff perpetrator was female nevertheless that one-third of rape is still a cause for concern as anal trauma that occurs in male rap...
It is said that prison should be used for more serious crimes such as rape, assault, homicide and robbery (David, 2006). Because the U.S. Prison is used heavily for punishment and prevention of crime, correctional systems in the U.S. tend to be overcrowded (David, 2006). Even though prisons in the U.S. Are used for privies on of crime it doesn 't work. In a 2002 federal study, 67% of inmates that
Yates, P. M. (2005). Pathways to treatment of sexual offenders: Rethinking intervention. Forum on Corrections Research, 17, 1-9.
Harris, Dan . "Prison Rape Widely Ignored By Authorities." . abc News, 16 Apr. 2002. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. .
Hall, Gordon C. "Sexual Arousal as a Function of Physiological and Cognitive Variables in a Sexual Offender Population." Archives of Sexual Behavior 1991st ser. 20.4 (1991): 359-69. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.
Gartner, Richard B. Betrayed as Boys: Psychodynamic Treatment of Sexually Abused Men. New York: Guilford, 1999. Print.
Bonnie, S. F., Francis, T. C., & Michael, G. T. (2000) The sexual victimization of college women. U.S. Department of Justice.
Szanto, L., Lyons, J., & Kisiel, C. (2012). Childhood trauma experience and the expression of problematic sexual behavior in children and adolescents in state custody. Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, 29(3), 231-249.
Sexuality Today Newsletter "Violence in Adolescent Dating Relationships Common, New Survey Reveals" December 22, 1986 (reporting on a report in Social Work contact Karen Brockopp) pp 2-3.