What’s Love Got to Do With It? Sex in a Female Maximum-Security Prison

Abstract

This study presents Israeli female inmates’ attitudes toward same-sex sexual relationships in prison and incentives to participation. The major findings are (a) conflict exists between the prevalence of same-sex sexual relationships among Israeli female inmates and prisoner negative attitudes toward them, (b) nearly all same-sex sexual relationships among shorter-term female inmates are based on economic exploitation and other benefits, and (c) most Jewish and Muslim female prisoners express negative attitudes toward same-sex sexual relationships in prison but, at the same time, participate in them. Unlike most female prisons in the Western world, the single women’s prison facility in Israel lacks pseudofamily networks.