Library Briefings

Inmate sexuality data

Study surveyed 564 prisoners

ICPSR has now made available the results of an ethnographic study of prison rape conducted between April 2004 and September 2005. The goal of the study was to understand prison rape as a cultural concept that inmates may know something about, even if they had never been raped, threatened, or physically or sexually intimidated.

The study was conducted in 30 correctional institutions in ten U.S. states. A total of 564 (409 male and 155 female) high-security inmates were interviewed, using a probability sample design. Average interview length was just under an hour. The sole mode of data collection was an open-ended, semi-structured inmate interview. Questions were asked about inmate prison history, mental health, rape, social process, domestic violence and relationships, staff, institutional factors, perception of social roles, and demographic information. Also included are lexical responses and free list questions such as, "Why do inmates have sex with other inmates?"

This data collection consists of 564 interview text files, one quantitative data file, a user guide, codebook, and data collection instrument in PDF files, and SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files. To protect confidentiality, some inmate and institutional data are masked or values collapsed. However, users interested in obtaining the confidential data may complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement form and specify the reasons for the request.

More details on the “Ethno-Methodological Study of the Subculture of Prison Inmate Sexuality in the United States, 2004-2005” are available at ICPSR.

Kathleen E. Murphy
Data Services Librarian
kemurphy@northwestern.edu