Research on Sex in Prison During the Late 1980s and Early 1990s

Research on sex in prison during the late 1980s and early 1990s was relatively rare in the published literature, despite important policy and practice considerations that provided a clear need for better understandings of such issues. The research that did appear during the period focused on one or two dominant themes and almost always focused on male inmates: consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and efforts to document the incidence of sex among inmates. The marginality of such research is also seen in the fact that most prison sex research in the period was produced by young scholars and individuals at small or nonacademic institutions. The need for more and broader scope research on prison sex is discussed.