THE SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION

The Sexual Victimization Of Female Inmates

Abstract

Data were gathered from 52 female inmates residing in two women's prisons located in Missouri, USA, through semi-structured interviews in order to document the existence of violence among female inmates and to evaluate causes of such violence. Donald Black's self help theory was used as a paradigm for evaluating causes of violence among female inmates. The results of this study suggest that violence among female inmates is more common than typically assumed. The results also suggest that Black's theory may account for the large amount of violence associated with homosexual relationships but is unable to explain the existence of predatory violence aimed at forcibly acquiring property or accomplishing sexual assault. Prison policies including those prohibiting homosexual conduct and the apparent de facto policy of punishing everyone involved in a fight may be unwittingly contributing to the problem of violence among female inmates.

The Sexual Victimization Of Female Inmates

Literrature Review

Prisons housing men have long been regarded as very dangerous places and a review of the literature reveals that inmate on inmate violence in men's prisons is a wide-spread and well-documented phenomenon (see e.g., Robertson, 2003; Toch, 1998; Walters, 1998). Comparatively little is known about violence among inmates in female prisons because most of the research on violence in the prison setting has focused on males (see e.g., McCorkle, Miethe & Drass, 1995). Even when researchers consider incarcerated women's experiences of violence they usually ignore issues of inmate on inmate violence and focus instead on past abuse suffered by incarcerated women or violence suffered by female inmates at the hands of male inmates and correctional officers (see e.g., Martin et al., 1995; Sable et al., 1999; Stein, 1996; Treacy, 1996).

While these sources of victimization of incarcerated females are clearly important topics for research, the nearly exclusive focus on incarcerated women as victims may be obscuring the reality of violence in women's prisons by systematically ignoring a potentially significant source of violent victimization. Preliminary efforts to explore violence among female inmates suggest that violence and aggression among female inmates is a substantial problem and is more prevalent than previously suspected (Campbell, 1986; McGuire, 2005).

Even sexual violence, once believed to be a problem only among male inmates, appears to be an issue for female inmates as well (Easteal, 2001). One ground breaking study recently found that in three Midwestern prisons for women the sexual coercion rate varied from 8% to 27% and that about half of these incidents were perpetrated by other inmates (Struckman-Johnson & Struckman-Johnson, 2002). Some inmate on inmate sexual assaults among women results in serious physical injury (McGuire, 2005).

Because violence among female inmates is such an under-researched topic, most of the existing research tends to be descriptive, a-theoretical, primarily narrative and sometimes anecdotal (Easteal, 2001; Rodriguez and Garvin, 1995). Thus, while the existing research suggests that violence among female inmates occurs more frequently than previously suspected, it sheds little light on why the violence occurs (Rierden, ...