Australian study tames sex-behind-bars myths

Apr 23, 2011, 6:02 GMT

Sydney - It is a myth that Australia's prisons are rife with sexual assault and that being behind bars turns straight men gay, news reports said Saturday.

Only 7 per cent of male prisoners reported any sex with another inmate and almost all of it was consensual.

Female prisoners were far more active, with 36 per cent of them reporting sex - and, again, force was rarely involved.

'Sexual coercion was a rare event in prisons - and it seems to be getting rarer,' University of New South Wales researcher Basil Donovan was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.

He and his team interviewed 2,397 inmates in 42 Australian jails. A third said that before being incarcerated they had feared sexual assault when they were put away.

Donovan found that for many, prison turned out to be a safer place than being free, with only 2.5 per cent of male prisoners and 3.9 per cent of female prisoners reporting that they had been forced or frightened into unwanted sexual activity.

'With 60 per cent of women and 13 per cent of the men reporting sexual coercion, including rape, prior to their imprisonment, our evidence suggests that these people are at less risk of sexual coercion and rape inside prison than outside,' Donovan said.

He found that over 60 per cent of male prisoners disapproved of homosexuality. 'Male prisons are very homophobic environments,' he said.

Of the 26 men who said they were homosexuals, 10 said they had not had sex in prison.

Professor Tony Butler, co-author of the study, said that because prisons were not gay-friendly, homosexual men often refrained from sex completely. 'They tend to go back into the closet. It's not worth being out,' he said.

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