title: Consensual sex between men and sexual violence in Australian prisons.
abstract: Estimates of the incidence of sexual coercion in men's prisons are notoriously variable and fraught with conceptual and methodological problems. In 2006-2007, we conducted a computer-assisted telephone survey of a random sample of 2,018 male prisoners in New South Wales and Queensland. Of 2,626 eligible and available inmates, 76.8% consented and provided full responses. We asked about time in prison, sexual experience, attraction and (homo/bi/heterosexual) identity, attitudes, sexual contact with other inmates, reasons for having sex and practices engaged in, and about sexual coercion, including location and number of perpetrators. Most men (95.1%) identified as heterosexual. Of the total sample, 13.5% reported sexual contact with males in their lifetime: 7.8% only outside prison, 2.8% both inside and outside, and 2.7% only inside prison. Later in the interview, 144 men (7.1% of total sample) reported sexual contact with inmates in prison; the majority had few partners and no anal intercourse. Most did so for pleasure, but some for protection, i.e., to avoid assault by someone else. Before incarceration, 32.9% feared sexual assault in prison; 6.9% had been sexually threatened in prison and 2.6% had been sexually coerced ("forced or frightened into doing something sexually that [they] did not want"). Some of those coerced reported no same-sex contact. The majority of prisoners were intolerant of male-to-male sexual activity. The study achieved a high response rate and asked detailed questions to elicit reports of coercion and sex separately. Both consensual sex and sexual assault are less common than is generally believed.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. j.richters@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Juliet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Richters
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yap
authors.forename: Kristie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kirkwood
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: Alun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Anthony M A
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Basil
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Donovan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D003068:Coercion; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008571:Men; D008875:Middle Aged; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011330:Prisons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012747:Sexual Partners; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*