Sexual coercion reported by men and women in prison

An anonymous survey of 1,800 men and women in a Midwestern state prison system revealed that 104 of 516 respondents (20%) had been pressured or forced at least once to have sexual contact against their will while incarcerated. Supporting the validity of this finding, a sample of staff estimated that the sexual coercion rate was 15%. The reported incident rate was 22% for male and 7% for female respondents. Based upon descriptions of worst case incidents, at least 50% of sexual targets had been forced to have intercourse (anal, vaginal, or oral), with one fourth of the cases qualifying as gang rape. Another 10% of targets were subjected to an attempt at forced intercourse. One fourth of targets reported less severe cases of forced and pressured sexual touching. Prison staff were reported as perpetrators in 18% of the incidents. Most targets rated the immediate and long‐term effects of the incident as very negative. One half of the targets did not tell anyone about the incident, and only 29% reported the incident to prison authorities. We encourage social scientists to conduct research on prison sexual coercion to aid in treatment of victims, HIV management, and development of prevention strategies.