Q: Tell me all about prison rape. Who does it? Who does it happen to? How often? How can it be avoided?
A: I've received numerous questions about this topic. I'll try to address them all.
While prison rape doesn't happen as much as most people believe, it's still a serious problem. According to some groups, it is estimated that over 240,000 inmates a year are raped in US prisons.
I'm often asked if prison rape is like what we see in the movies. The only answer I can give is yes - mostly. I guess it just depends on the movie. Prison rape is brutal and humiliating. Use your own imagination.
There are essentially two types of prison rape.
First, there is rape through coercion, where an inmate is 'talked' into performing sex acts that they normally would not do. These rapes can seem consensual but are not. Coercion rape usually happens in a 'prison bitch' or 'punk' type situation; the inmate has been threatened or blackmailed into cooperation. It's also pretty common for a weak inmate to turn to a stronger inmate for protection. At first he'll think that he can bribe his protector with gifts or favors, and that sometimes works, but quite often the protector will decide that he wants sexual favors as well. The weak inmate then loses control and essentially becomes the protector's slave. The protector uses the inmate for sex and will take anything he wants from him. It's also fairly common for the protector to pimp out his inmate to other inmates to pay debts.
The best way to avoid this kind of rape is to not rely on other inmates for protection. It's better to fight and lose a few times than become someone's sex slave.
The second type of rape is through force and violence. These types of rapes are brutal and are obviously not consensual. They tend to happen less often than coercion rapes, but no inmate is safe from violent rape. Of course, weaker inmates are usually the targets but even the biggest and meanest inmate can be raped if the situation is right. Violent rape is more about power and humiliation than about sexual pleasure. These types of rapes often happen in retaliation for debts, insults and power struggles. There are some inmates who just get off on violently raping weaker inmates for no reason, but they are pretty rare and tend to get weeded out by the other inmates. Nobody likes a crazy rapist living in his section.
The best way to avoid violent rape is to be aware of your situation and surroundings. Never get cornered or find yourself alone in an unsupervised area. Crowds and officer presence are your friends.
Regardless of the situation, the number one way to prevent being raped in prison is to never appear to be weak.
