Sex in Prisoner Power Relations: Attitudes and Practices in a Ukrainian Correctional Colony for Men

Most research on prison sex has originated in the global West, often employing quantitative methodology. Building on a semi-ethnographic study of a Ukrainian prison, this article explores how prisoners and officers perceive prisoner sex. Rape was not reported in this prison, despite the relatively young prison population. I argue that the informal prisoner power structure of the prison underworld diminishes sexual abuse. Thus, contrary to much of the literature, masculinity, homophobia, and informal prisoner hierarchies can equally instigate and restrain prison violence and sexual victimisation.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Social Science Research Network

• Publication date

  2017-03-01

• Fields of study

  Sociology, Political Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/HOJO.12177
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Architecture and attachment: Carceral collectivism and the problem of prison reform in Russia and Georgia

  2015cited by this paper
• Strategic masculinities: Vulnerabilities, risk and the production of prison masculinities

  2015cited by this paper
• An Exploratory Study of Sex and Rape Behind Bars in a South African Prison

  2014cited by this paper
• The Social Construction of Sexuality in Prison

  2013cited by this paper
• The Effect of Conjugal Visitation on Sexual Violence in Prison

  2013cited by this paper
• Rape and Consensual Sex in Male Israeli Prisons

  2013cited by this paper
• The ties that bind or the ties that break: Examining the relationship between visitation and prisoner misconduct☆

  2012cited by this paper
• What’s Love Got to Do With It? Sex in a Female Maximum-Security Prison

  2012cited by this paper
• Men’s Vulnerability to Prisoner-on-Prisoner Sexual Violence

  2012cited by this paper
• Masculinity as Prison: Sexual Identity, Race, and Incarceration

  2011cited by this paper
• Symbolic Violence and Prison Wives

  2011cited by this paper
• Men, Sex, and Homosociality

  2008cited by this paper
• The Prevalence of Sexual Violence in Prison

  2008cited by this paper
• Behind the Bars of Masculinity: Male Rape and Homophobia in and about South African Men's Prisons

  2007cited by this paper
• Competing Masculinities in a Prison

  2006cited by this paper
• Rules of engagement: Structuring sex and damage in men's prisons and beyond

  2005cited by this paper
• The Patterns of Masculinity in Prison

  2005cited by this paper
• Men Behind Bars

  2005cited by this paper
• Coercive Sexual Behaviour in British Prisons as Reported by Adult Ex-Prisoners

  2004cited by this paper
• PRISON RAPE IN CONTEXT

  2004cited by this paper
• Unsettling Engagements: On the Ends of Rapport in Critical Ethnography

  2001cited by this paper
• Inmate Sexual Assault: The Plague That Persists

  2000cited by this paper
• Introduction: The History of Prison Sex Research

  2000cited by this paper
• Research on Sex in Prison During the Late 1980s and Early 1990s

  2000cited by this paper
• Correctional Officers and Their Perceptions of Homosexuality, Rape, and Prostitution in Male Prisons

  2000cited by this paper
• A Man's World: Gender Issues in Working with Male Sex Offenders in Prison

  1998cited by this paper
• Four Blocks Against Insight: Notes on the Oversocialization of Criminologists

  1997cited by this paper
• Sex in Prison: Exploring the Myths and Realities

  1995cited by this paper
• Homosexuality in Male Prisons: Demonstrating the Need for a Social Constructionist Approach

  1992cited by this paper
• Fear of Homosexuality and Modes of Rationalisation in Male Prisons

  1978cited by this paper

• Research with institutionalized populations: Methodological and ethical dilemmas

  2023cites this paper
• Authoritarian Hegemonic Masculinities and Gendered Rhetorics of the Protest

  2022cites this paper
• Prison order through the hyperopticon, collectivism, and atomisation: The surveillance and disciplining of Ukrainian prison officers

  2022cites this paper
• Education behind bars and beyond prison: incarcerated women’s education aspirations and barriers in Ukraine

  2021cites this paper
• The sexuality of prisoners in a Finnish prison – a survey and comparison with a population-based data

  2021cites this paper
• Untrustworthy subjects? Risks, blame and gradual prison release in Ukraine

  2020cites this paper
• Correction to: The Eye of a Needle: Temporary Prison Leave in Ukraine

  2019cites this paper
• The Eye of a Needle: Temporary Prison Leave in Ukraine

  2019cites this paper
• Sexuality and Sexual Health in Prisons

  2019cites this paper
• The Dual Model of Legitimacy in the Prison Environment

  2019cites this paper
• Sexuality and Sexual Health in Prisons

  2019cites this paper
• The Ukrainian Response to Sykes: Prisoner Hierarchy and Self-Rule—Power, Legitimacy, and Dynamics

  2018cites this paper
• Compromised Power and Negotiated Order in a Ukrainian Prison

  2018cites this paper
• Do Men in Prison Have Nothing to Lose but Their Manhood? Masculinities of Prisoners and Officers in a Ukrainian Correctional Colony

  2017cites this paper