Monday, August 28, 2006

Female Perp or just a Prison Romance?

Did you know that the bulk of sexual offenses in the U.S. and Va. prisons were committed by female workers? I had no idea but that is what a study on prison sexual offenses found (thanks to Fred Ray for sending me this article):

Roughly half of all sexual impropriety reported in U.S. prisons and jails last year was perpetrated by correctional staff, not inmates. Female staff were the offenders in two-thirds of the prison cases, and two-thirds of the victims of prison staff were male inmates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

With 2 million men and 200,000 women behind bars in the United States, the problem appears small -- there were 344 substantiated incidents of staff sexual misconduct and harassment reported by authorities last year. But experts believe incidents are underreported, and the bureau study notes that many allegations remain under investigation.

Critics say just one improper relationship between staff and an inmate erodes discipline, security and morale in institutions where there is little privacy, few secrets and a strong reluctance to "snitch.

....While there is an element of supposed romance noted in many of the cases, sexual relations of any kind between prison employees and inmates are considered nonconsensual by law because of the inherent power that staff have over prisoners. In Virginia it is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.


I love the reasons given for more female perpetrators:

Smith said it is not surprising that a larger number of female staff in prisons are involved in sex offenses. Male inmates outnumber female inmates more than 10-to-1. The federal report did not break down the data for homosexual versus heterosexual misconduct, but assuming most staff and most inmates are heterosexual, you would expect to find more female staff reported as perpetrators and more male inmates as victims, she said.

"You will often find that the culture that allows this kind of stuff to happen is also a culture that is particularly inhospitable to female staff," she said, noting that female staff might align themselves with inmates for protection.


So female staff become perpretrators because there are more male inmates and the prison culture is inhospitable to female staff? Would we ever utter such excuses for men who are perpetrating against women?

15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I worked in a prison. Every sexual offense was committed by a woman officer/counselor. It's mostly because the population of the prison was all male.

-SayUncle

3:44 PM, August 28, 2006  
Blogger TMink said...

Prison romance? It seems that it would only be a prison romance if it was a relationship among the prisoners themselves. Sexual contact between an inmate and a guard would be a crime. There are no gender exclusions in this type of law at present, so let's just use accurate language to describe it. Whether female staff are popular or not with male staff seems like a concern best left in middle school, and is certainly not worthy of discussion concerning the topic of rape, abuse of power, and sexual misconduct.

On the other hand, perhaps this is a version of the lame response that the judge gave regarding the woman in the short skirt who was raped. She was "asking for it." Women guards rape male prisoners (rape is a crime of power, and the guards have the guns and the keys, thus the power) because they are excluded from their peer group.

Sheesh.
Trey

4:28 PM, August 28, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is kind of a ridiculous P.C. way of looking at this. Did it ever occur to anyone that a significant number of women that go into (male) prison guarding are doing it at least partly for (sexual) thrills? Of course there are going to be some that aren't, but there must be some fraction that are. And as for the male victims, some of them must not mind much that they actually get to have sex with a woman. (One that may be able to improve their situation, to boot)
I'm also sure that sometimes some kind of power abuse or outright coercion occurs, but I imagine sometimes it doesn't. Although either way I guess this is at least a form of "statutory rape"
It's still pretty odd that the numbers break down that way.

6:10 PM, August 28, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"This is kind of a ridiculous P.C. way of looking at this."

Bingo, and the name for this type of PC is Victorian prissiness. A sexual thought would never enter those frail little women's pretty little heads, so it has to be the fault of those hulking oppressive men, the ones the women lock in their cages every night. This is basically the same thing as Dworkin-style victim "feminism".

6:16 PM, August 28, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not enough information nor is there insight to determine if the methodology is corrupt or slipshod.

Is this proof that 97% of Butch Dikes with a whip & submission dungeon, seek out employment in "women's correctional institutions" (nice phrase for prison isn't it)
-- for the easy pickings ?

OR

Is this simply more proof that 67% of all statistics cited in all studies are wrong.

6:50 PM, August 28, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmm:

Some of these ladies certainly don't look abused.

Dang,

Where's that matchbook cover for "Become a Prison Guard in your spare time at the Prison Guard Institute"

"Ladies of the Pen" the premier dating site for incarcerated women.


http://www.ladiesofthepen.com/index.html

The internet, what a wonderful tool.

7:00 PM, August 28, 2006  
Blogger TMink said...

Anon 6:10 wrote: "And as for the male victims, some of them must not mind much that they actually get to have sex with a woman. (One that may be able to improve their situation, to boot)

Uh, yeah, right. Change the gender and you get: "And as for the female victims, some of them must not mind much that they actually get to have sex with a woman. (One that may be able to improve their situation, to boot"

No such thing as sexual harrasment if you buy that garbage. So rape is OK if the sex is good? Remember the outcry when Bobby Knight said "If you are going to be raped, you might as well lay back and enjoy it." The (legitimate)outcry was deafening. But it is OK to rape men if you are a woman, because we are, well, men, and we enjoy sex so much and think with our appendages so much that we even enjoy being raped by women prison guards.

Wow, what amazing cluelessness. Rape is rape, it is gender neutral. Sexual abuse is not an issue of gender either. 23 year old teachers and 14 year old boys is child sexual abuse. Don't be lulled into thinking otherwise by gender feminist male bashing.

10:13 AM, August 29, 2006  
Blogger TMink said...

Oops, appologies to the Howard Stern crowd for turning the prison scene into a lesbian fantasy. The gender switching quote should have read: "And as for the female victims, some of them must not mind much that they actually get to have sex with a MAN. (One that may be able to improve their situation, to boot)

Sorry, I really need to drink my coffee before posting.

Trey

10:15 AM, August 29, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On top of the illogic of the analysis (by some) of the statistic quoted, it is outrageous that any statistic about sexual abuse in prison does not reference the simple fact that homosexual rape in prison, of inmates by inmates, is an immense problem, that, as this article shows, goes almost completely unacknowledged.

The group Stop Prison Rape estimates that the number of actual incidents of homosexual inmate-on-inmate rape exceeds that of man-upon-woman rape in society at large. Victims of prison rape are victimized repeatedly, cruelly, and usually violently, with the additional pyschological torment for the victim that help is usually not forthcoming, and the perpetrator is unlikely to ever have to pay for his crime.

Millions of serious, violent rapes occur in prisons every year. Making a hullaballoo about 344 incidents of sexual misconduct between officers and inmates only serves to underline the real tragedy going on inside prisons every day, and the disgusting willingness of society to completely ignore it.

8:21 AM, August 31, 2006  
Blogger Helen said...

Al,

Homosexual rape in prison is a huge problem with dire consequences for the men who live through the experience. I have worked with men over the years in my practice who were in prison for non-violent crimes who were raped or a witness to many rapes while locked up and their ability to adjust to life on the outside is further damaged from this horrible experience. And part of the problem is that society does not care that they were raped--they live with the emotions on a daily basis and are filled with anger--but unlike women who are raped, have no sympathy, no outlet and few places of support to go with their feelings except inward which results in depression, suicide or more of a chance of recidivism.

8:40 AM, August 31, 2006  
Blogger DWPittelli said...

"Wow, what amazing cluelessness. Rape is rape, it is gender neutral."

Yes, but you are begging the question: Is it rape?

The State properly considers these relations akin to statutory rape, for a number of reasons, especially:

1) It can be abusive, given the power imbalance.

2) The relations can cause friction within the prison, and lead to everything from the giving of contraband to help in escapes. (Indeed, prisons ban lesser forms of fraternization for this reason.)

But #1 above does not mean it has to be abusive, or has to screw up the (generally adult) "victim." I would not choose prison even if I were single and the prison were some sort of sexual fantasy-land (which it would not be even if the sexual relations were allowed). However, the majority of men would find the prospect of facing years in prison far easier to take if they knew they were going to be able to have regular sex with women (whether guards or visitors from outside).

Other points:
3) Guards do not carry guns in any prison. There are never any guns in a prison except in the towers, or occasionally when assault teams are retaking an area from rioters. Prisoners are not put in a position where they may snatch a gun!

4) A femaled guard's relative power is administrative (she can get the prisoner into or out of trouble), not physical. I will concede that the guard's action, if the prisoner feels coerced, is somewhat worse than that of the sleazy boss who puts employees on the casting couch (generally a civil, not criminal matter) because the prisoner can't change prisons as easily as an employee can change jobs. However, the guard is more akin to this situation than to the rapist who uses physical force or drugs. No doubt there are cases where the prisoner feels violated, akin to a coerced child, but there are also cases where the prisoner is glad to be getting some. Further, I do not believe an adult man would get emotionally disturbed to anywhere near the same extent as a child.

5) While the guard (counselor, etc.) is in a position of administrative power, once she has sex with the prisoner the power imbalance is apt to go the other way, when he or another prisoner snitch can blackmail the guard for favors such as contraband, positive reports, even escape. This is another reason the State bans such sexual relations; however, this part of the problem is actually due to the law against the sexual relations, not the relations themselves.

6) Another reason the State does not allow any sex in prison is because the public wouldn't tolerate it. An absence of sex is considered part of the punishment. Note how rare conjugal visit programs are in this country. This is not because conjugal visits are detrimental to prison operation; they are not. And such visits help keep prisoners tied to their families, which is an important part of avoiding recidivism (although I do not know of any studies directly connecting conjugal visits to lower recidivism). Naturally, the State can't keep a prisoner from sex with his wife while tolerating sex with a guard.

Note that (although I have made arguments pro and con) if I were philosopher king, prisons would continue to ban sex between prisoners and employees, as incompatible with discipline and security. (I would not call the employees rapists, but I would fire them and even give them some jail time.) For well-behaved prisoners, weekly conjugal visits would be allowed with spouses (and perhaps a single named girfriend, but not whoever just shows up, who is apt to be a prostitute). These visits would increase the prisoners' desire to be well-behaved, would help keep them tied to their families, and would reduce their desire to have sex with the female employees.

8:41 AM, August 31, 2006  
Blogger TMink said...

Dwpitelli made some good points. First, I did not know that guards are not armed! Thanks for pointing this out.

As for prisoners being less bummed out about being in prison if they could have sex with women, well, sure you are right. I think most of us are less bummed out if we have a good sex life. But does a good sex life fit the agenda of imprisoning someone for their crimes?

Power, whether administrative, physical,spiritual, whatever, is power. I think you miss the point by focusing on the lack of physical power mismatch. It looks as if you are masculinizing the problem, they are just women after all, how much of a bad ass could they be? That is the gender bias that many of us are commenting about.

We agree about grownups being more resilient than children. But the prisoner being willing does not change the nature of the status violation. Some sexually abused chldren accept that abuse is how you get things done and attempt to initiate it with healthy adults. The healthy adults recoil in horror as they should! Sexual relations between guards and prisoners is simply wrong, is it not?

Your last point about conjugal visits reducing the prisoner's desire to have sex with the guards likely misunderstands and underestimates the level of personality disorders and other serious psychopathology found among many inmates. Some of these folks are not like you and me. Maybe most of them.

Just my thoughts.

Trey

3:44 PM, August 31, 2006  
Blogger a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...

There is a mathematically subtle difference between the way you stated the case and the original citation which is 'Roughly half of all sexual impropriety reported in U.S. prisons and jails last year was perpetrated by correctional staff..' (emphaisis mine). The issue for the warden is control, including denying heterosexual gratification, to the inmates; that's why the reports occur. I hazard to guess that most male inmates look upon the occasion as their lucky day. Let me know, though, if 'Going to Prison' makes David Letterman's 'Top ten ways to pick up girls!'

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