Wardens’ Perceptions of Prison Sex

Abstract

Using data gathered from anonymous questionnaires of 226 male and female wardens from state-operated institutions, the research assesses whether, and to what degree, individual demographic variables and institutional characteristic variables are related to wardens’ perceptions of the prevalence of sexual assault in their institutions, the prevalence of inmates’ consensual sexual activities, and wardens’ assessment of the proportion of sexual assaults that come to their attention. The results of the study show that wardens generally believe sexual activities, consensual and coercive, are relatively rare in their institutions. Individual and institutional characteristics are not shown to be statistically significantly related to perceptions of the prevalence of coercive sexual incidents or frequency of knowledge of sexual assaults. However, four variables (gender, race, sex of prison, and ratio of inmates to officers) are significantly related to estimates of the proportion of inmates that are involved in consensual sexual activities.