The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach

Male prison rape and sexual assaults remains a serious and sensitive issue in many countries. Human rights groups claim that sexual assaults among male prisoners have reached pandemic proportions and need to be stopped. Researchers for many years have studied the causes of male sexual assault in pri...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yap, L., Richters, J., Butler, Tony, Schneider, K., Grant, L., Donovan, B.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11551
_version_ 1848747836571648000
author Yap, L.
Richters, J.
Butler, Tony
Schneider, K.
Grant, L.
Donovan, B.
author_facet Yap, L.
Richters, J.
Butler, Tony
Schneider, K.
Grant, L.
Donovan, B.
author_sort Yap, L.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Male prison rape and sexual assaults remains a serious and sensitive issue in many countries. Human rights groups claim that sexual assaults among male prisoners have reached pandemic proportions and need to be stopped. Researchers for many years have studied the causes of male sexual assault in prison and offered numerous recommendations on its prevention. Few, however, have presented evidence for a decline in male prisoner sexual assaults and investigated the reasons for the decline. This article provides evidence from population-based surveys of a steady decrease in male prisoner sexual assaults in New South Wales (NSW) between 1996 and 2009. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with former and current inmates, and using a "systems" approach they discuss the complexity of sexual assaults in prison, incorporating a multiplicity of perspectives. In particular, they bring together different sources of data and discuss this in relation to changes in power structures and control in a modern prison, the attitudes of older and younger prisoners, the concept of "duty of care," introduction of prison drug programs, and prisoner attitudes toward gender and sexuality. In anthropology, the term "system" is used widely for describing sociocultural phenomena of a given society in a holistic manner without reducing the complexity of a given community. © The Author(s) 2011.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T06:55:29Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-11551
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:55:29Z
publishDate 2011
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-115512017-09-13T14:55:05Z The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach Yap, L. Richters, J. Butler, Tony Schneider, K. Grant, L. Donovan, B. Male prison rape and sexual assaults remains a serious and sensitive issue in many countries. Human rights groups claim that sexual assaults among male prisoners have reached pandemic proportions and need to be stopped. Researchers for many years have studied the causes of male sexual assault in prison and offered numerous recommendations on its prevention. Few, however, have presented evidence for a decline in male prisoner sexual assaults and investigated the reasons for the decline. This article provides evidence from population-based surveys of a steady decrease in male prisoner sexual assaults in New South Wales (NSW) between 1996 and 2009. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with former and current inmates, and using a "systems" approach they discuss the complexity of sexual assaults in prison, incorporating a multiplicity of perspectives. In particular, they bring together different sources of data and discuss this in relation to changes in power structures and control in a modern prison, the attitudes of older and younger prisoners, the concept of "duty of care," introduction of prison drug programs, and prisoner attitudes toward gender and sexuality. In anthropology, the term "system" is used widely for describing sociocultural phenomena of a given society in a holistic manner without reducing the complexity of a given community. © The Author(s) 2011. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11551 10.1177/0886260510390961 restricted
spellingShingle Yap, L.
Richters, J.
Butler, Tony
Schneider, K.
Grant, L.
Donovan, B.
The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach
title The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach
title_full The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach
title_fullStr The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach
title_full_unstemmed The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach
title_short The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: A "systems" approach
title_sort decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in new south wales: a "systems" approach
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11551