6 - Sexual assaults

Summary

In the corrections' literature, sexual assault by prisoners on other prisoners is generally treated as a special case of prisoner-prisoner violence. Following this tradition, a separate chapter has been devoted to sexual assault in this book. It is likely that there are unique situational characteristics of sexual assault that suggest control strategies different from those already discussed.

Nature of the problem

Definition and incidence

A fundamental difficulty in interpreting research in this area is the failure of many researchers adequately to define sexual assault either to the participants of the research or to the readers of the research findings. In one of the few attempts to specify what constitutes sexual assault in prison, Heilpern (1998) offered the following definition to the prisoners in his study:

sexual assault [is] physical contact of a sexual kind, where your involvement is forced upon you, such as unwanted anal sex, oral sex, wanking or fondling. The force may be by threat of, or actual, physical harm.

(pp. 16–17)

This chapter adopts the parameters of sexual assault set out by Heilpern. As Heilpern's definition makes clear, sexual assault is broader than might be conveyed by the term ‘rape’. Aggressors may employ intimidation as well as physical force, and need not necessarily effect penetration. The definition includes cases where prisoners are forced to provide sex in return for protection from other predators.