Sexual coercion in men's prisons

Abstract

Sexual violence is recognised as a global and public health problem (WHO 2002; Dumond 2003; Wolff & Shi 2009; Yap et al. 2011) and encompasses, according to the World Health Organization, any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments, or advances against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting (WHO 2002: 149). Most research on sexual violence has focused on the experience of women as victims and has occurred in non-incarcerated community contexts (Dumond 2003; Weiss 2010). Very little research has focused on men as victims (Weiss 2010; Peterson et al. 2011) or on those incarcerated (Wolff et al. 2006; Wolff & Shi 2011; Richters, Butler, & Schneider 2012). Indeed, prisoners are routinely excluded from community surveys based on household or telephone sampling.