Women Behind Bars In New South Wales: Sex At The Margins

Participation rate for eligible inmates was 88%, giving 199 interviews for analysis. Results: Although some findings are very similar to those of the national household sex survey (the Australian Study of Health and Relationships) in 2001–02, female inmates in 2006 were far more likely to report ever having been forced or frightened into unwanted sexual activity (59% v. 21% in ASHR), mostly by males. Inmates were also much more likely to report any same-sex experience (59% v. 9%) and/or lesbian (7% v. <1%) or (28% v. 1%) identity. This is not simply situational, as the great majority of inmates with same-sex experience had done so outside prison, and more than a third of them had such experience only outside prison. A third of respondents (35%) had ever had some form of sexual contact in prison with another inmate. Although female prisoners generally had poorer health and lower education than Australian women surveyed in households, their patterns of heterosexual practice, sexual attitudes and sexual health knowledge were broadly similar. Conclusions: bisexualFindings confirm the correlation of bisexuality in women with a higher sexual health risk profile. Further research is needed to tease out the relationships between a history of sexual coercion by men and sexual experience with women, together with influences of social class, cultural background, drug use and sex work experience.