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Man's World: Gender Issues in Working With Male Sex Offenders in Prison

NCJ Number
174247
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: August 1998 Pages: 234-251
Author(s)
M Cowburn
Date Published
1998
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examines how prison culture affects male and female correctional personnel differently and considers the implications of this for work with male sex offenders in prison.
Abstract
The article first sets the context of work within prisons both by describing the gender composition of the staff group of the Prison Service of England and Wales and by considering the presence and influence of a dominant male culture within Prison Service establishments. The study itself, conducted in the fall of 1989, sent questionnaires to all the establishments that had indicated they were working with sex offenders, asking who was working with which offenders and from what particular theoretical framework. Thirty-one of 35 questionnaires were returned. The final stage of the fieldwork involved selecting and visiting seven establishments. Workers interviewed (8 females and 13 males) were psychologists, probation officers, a senior medical officer, and uniformed staff. They all had direct involvement in therapeutic work with sex offenders. All of the women interviewed reported the presence of sexism in their working environment and acknowledged its negative impact. The culture of male-dominated prisons and prison staff poses particular difficulties for the development of mixed gender co-working partnerships. The author's research on the male and female prison staff working together on sex offender treatment programs shows how female staff have found discrepancies between their male co-worker's behavior in the treatment group and the same man's behavior when on the wing surrounded by male colleagues. This dissonance was experienced as seriously undermining the co-working relationship. Given the potential danger to the public posed by sex offenders, it is advisable that reforms to the staff and inmate culture of prisons be a key part of any strategy for working with sex offenders in prisons. 2 tables, 2 notes, and 36 references