Sexual violence in prisons

Abstract

Sexual violence in prisons is a phenomenon to which domestic scientific and professional communities do not address enough attention. The idea that violence in prisons is a part of the deserved punishment results in that today there is practically no domestic research directed to determining the frequency, form, causes and consequences of this phenomenon. Apart from individual and common actions of the security service in Serbian prisons, there is no specific prevention program to deal with this issue. It is in this sense that this paper presents theoretical and empirical bases of the phenomenon of sexual violence in penal institutions. It gives an overview of studies that have attempted to determine the incidence of this phenomenon and identifies methodological problems and risk factors of victimization. Referring to some of the basic theoretical explanations of the etiology of this phenomenon, as well as available prevention options, the paper provides suggestions for improvement of the national criminal executive practice.