NCJ Number
89079
Date Published
1982
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Techniques to counter sexual assaults in prisons focus on increasing inmates' interpersonal skills, relieving interpersonal or intergroup tensions, and developing problemsolving skills through democratic prisoner organizations.
Abstract
Sexual attacks in prison produce an aggressor employing violence to coerce the target, and targets sometimes reacting violently to propositions. Since prison culture values violence, aggression, and masculinity, any remedy for sexual assault faces stiff obstacles. Human relations training could be applied to the problem, such as using role playing to teach techniques for being assertive in nonviolent ways. Social literacy training could address exploitative violence by openly identifying the problem in group discussions, analyzing its causes, and developing solutions. Specific group projects include creating a survival guide for inmates and a stress hunt in which members question each other about what bothers them most. The strength of this approach is that it leaves the form of the solution to the group. When meetings are held regularly and taken seriously because inmate participants have the power to make decisions, staff can deliberately focus attention on specific events or problems. In any self-government, however, a plan must be instituted to promulgate nonviolent values so that group violence does not simply replace individual violence. Although democratic prisoner organizations hold promise for reducing sexual violence, they face certain obstacles, such as recruiting staff who are both humanitarian and strong and changing prisoners' views on forcibly interfering with other prisoners' actions. The article provides 12 references.