Correctional Staff Sexual Misconduct

Paper Summary:

In this article the writer notes that the issue of staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct remains a prevalent problem within the United States correctional system. The writer points out that there is a vast amount of research on the topic that has triggered the passage of new laws as well as placed a greater focus on the need for correctional facility officials and the Department of Justice to take actions to put an end to the abuse. The writer offers solutions to this increasing problem. The writer concludes that it appears that correctional administration and prison staff clearly have their work cut out for them if they want to achieve a safer and fairer modern correctional system.

From the Paper:

"Although somewhat recognized as a problem, sexual abuse within the prison system did not seem to occur as frequently as the later research tends to reveal. For example, by the early 1980s, it became increasingly noticeable that sexual abuse by those in a supervisory type position tended to be strategic, and that such formulations implied the presence of cognitive processes that allow offenders to simultaneously overcome their own inhibitions and the resistance of the victim. Ferund was among the first to explicitly acknowledge the role of cognition in explaining sexual abuse. He argued that sexual offenders had to overcome both internal and external inhibitions as well as the resistance of the victim in order for abuse to occur. According to his research, these offenders had to find a way to avoid taking responsibility for or to deny the harmfulness of behaviors that they would otherwise recognize as abusive. In general, researchers theorized that prison guards idealized the fact that they were in control over an unworthy population, and that such cruel treatment as sexual abuse was deserved by this population."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Department of Justice. 2005. Advance for Release [online]. Bureau of Justice Statistics; available from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/svrca04pr.htm; Internet; accessed 20 August 2006.
• Fog, A. 1992. Paraphilias and Therapy. Nordisk Sexologi, vol. 10(4), pp. 236-242.
• Freund, K. 1981. Assessment of pedophilia. in Cook, M. & Howells, K. (eds.), Adult sexual interest in children, London: Academic Press, pp. 139-179.
• McConaghy, N. 1999. Unresolved issues in scientific sexology. Archives of sexual behavior, vol. 28(4), pp. 285-318.
• National Institute of Corrections. 1996. Sexual Misconduct in Prisons: Law, Agency Responses, and Prevention. November Edition.

More papers on Correctional Staff Sexual Misconduct:

• Research Paper # 101105 : "Sexual Misconduct in Special Education"
• Analytical Essay # 102206 : "Correctional Staff Work and Family Conflict"
• Article Review # 102435 : "Article Review: "Possible Antecedents of Correctional Staff Work"

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